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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
The first time I read this, I was home with a toddler and an infant, which means I'd pick up the book and read after I put them down for a nap and finished cleaning up from lunch and in between laundry loads, etc. etc. - only to realize that they were both up and the toddler was in the infant's room hatching a plan to help the infant escape from his crib.
Or, I'd read at the end of my day, in bed, in between nursing sessions with the infant and night terrors with the toddler.
Neither is exactly conducive to reading Virginia Woolf.
Now, said infant and toddler are school-aged, and though I'm still fitting reading in between everything else (there are still loads of laundry and dishwasher cycles, but now we've got dance lessons and sports practices), it is easier for me to focus on what I'm reading.
Woolf's [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1319710256s/14942.jpg|841320] is one of my all-time favorites, so I decided it was high time I had my own copy of To The Lighthouse and give it a good old fashioned re-read.
And I'm so glad I did.
This book has three parts; in the first, the Ramsey family and some summer guests, including Lily Briscoe, an aspiring painter, are enjoying a summer at their summer home in the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye. Young James Ramsey wants to go to the lighthouse, yet his father has already told him they won't be able to. Mrs. Ramsey tells him perhaps another day.
Life on the island with these guests seems content. They all go about their days, doing their own thing. And though they are all staying in such close quarters, they really don't have much to do with eachother; they can't seem to relate to one another.
Part two, is a ten year span including the years of WW I. The time moves, though maybe not as you'd expect it to. Death and loss pervades this section.
In part three, some of the Ramseys and their former guests return to the summer house. Mr. Ramsey finally plans to take that promised trip to the lighthouse with Cam and James. While they sail away, Lily tries to finish the painting she started all those years ago.
The complexity of human relationships is central to this book. Woolf tells the story in such a rythmic way with constant references to the water and to time - the house begins to look shabby, the rugs are fraying, the chairs are falling apart, the greenhouse needs to be mended - all of this while the tide moves in and out, the waves, the water lapping. And Woolf is able to absolutely capture the feelings, thoughts, ideas, memories, the perceptions of the characters. Everything that on its own would seem so mundane and everyday, yet as a whole, takes on a brilliancy.
To The Lighthouse is just overwhelmingly wonderful prose. It's just so good it's unreal.
She had a sense of being past everything, through everything, out of everything, as she helped the soup, as if there was an eddy - there - and one could be in it, or one could be out of it, and she was out of it. (p.83)
Raising her eyebrows at the discrepancy - that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing - ladling out soup - she felt, more and more strongly, outside that eddy; or as if a shade had fallen, and, robbed of colour, she saw things truly. (p. 83)
Or, I'd read at the end of my day, in bed, in between nursing sessions with the infant and night terrors with the toddler.
Neither is exactly conducive to reading Virginia Woolf.
Now, said infant and toddler are school-aged, and though I'm still fitting reading in between everything else (there are still loads of laundry and dishwasher cycles, but now we've got dance lessons and sports practices), it is easier for me to focus on what I'm reading.
Woolf's [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1319710256s/14942.jpg|841320] is one of my all-time favorites, so I decided it was high time I had my own copy of To The Lighthouse and give it a good old fashioned re-read.
And I'm so glad I did.
This book has three parts; in the first, the Ramsey family and some summer guests, including Lily Briscoe, an aspiring painter, are enjoying a summer at their summer home in the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye. Young James Ramsey wants to go to the lighthouse, yet his father has already told him they won't be able to. Mrs. Ramsey tells him perhaps another day.
Life on the island with these guests seems content. They all go about their days, doing their own thing. And though they are all staying in such close quarters, they really don't have much to do with eachother; they can't seem to relate to one another.
Part two, is a ten year span including the years of WW I. The time moves, though maybe not as you'd expect it to. Death and loss pervades this section.
In part three, some of the Ramseys and their former guests return to the summer house. Mr. Ramsey finally plans to take that promised trip to the lighthouse with Cam and James. While they sail away, Lily tries to finish the painting she started all those years ago.
The complexity of human relationships is central to this book. Woolf tells the story in such a rythmic way with constant references to the water and to time - the house begins to look shabby, the rugs are fraying, the chairs are falling apart, the greenhouse needs to be mended - all of this while the tide moves in and out, the waves, the water lapping. And Woolf is able to absolutely capture the feelings, thoughts, ideas, memories, the perceptions of the characters. Everything that on its own would seem so mundane and everyday, yet as a whole, takes on a brilliancy.
To The Lighthouse is just overwhelmingly wonderful prose. It's just so good it's unreal.
She had a sense of being past everything, through everything, out of everything, as she helped the soup, as if there was an eddy - there - and one could be in it, or one could be out of it, and she was out of it. (p.83)
Raising her eyebrows at the discrepancy - that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing - ladling out soup - she felt, more and more strongly, outside that eddy; or as if a shade had fallen, and, robbed of colour, she saw things truly. (p. 83)
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was really an interesting book. I wasn’t really sure how I’d feel about it but I did end up enjoying it. I had to listen to an audiobook of it to really understand the tone though.
For maybe the first time I am at somewhat of a loss as to how to review a book. I know I need to read this one again (and then maybe again) to fully appreciate it. The language, the thought processes of the characters, the structure of the book -- it's all amazing.
In the first section, 'The Window,' I was struck by the elegance of the prose, as we are handed off deftly and smoothly from one character's mind and into another. We are always in someone's head. I think I liked even more the segue from this first section into the next, 'Time Passes,' as we are taken from one night into many nights. (I was reminded of part of Paul Harding's [b:Tinkers|4957350|Tinkers|Paul Harding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364258693s/4957350.jpg|5023150] in this section.) If I ever felt lost here, within a couple of sentences, I found my way again. An image started in the first section and continued in the second was done to great effect, both poignant and frightening. The third section, 'The Lighthouse,' continues on in more of the vein of the first, but with a very different feel to it (perhaps because fewer characters are on the island now), though once again we are always in an individual's mind.
I could probably go on and on -- for example, about Lily's 'vision,' and the shaping and capturing of that artistic vision -- but if I did, this would end up being way too long. I will say, though, that Lily's words to herself about what she would like her painting to be also describe this novel: feathery and evanescent on the surface ... but beneath ... clamped together with bolts of iron ...
In the first section, 'The Window,' I was struck by the elegance of the prose, as we are handed off deftly and smoothly from one character's mind and into another. We are always in someone's head. I think I liked even more the segue from this first section into the next, 'Time Passes,' as we are taken from one night into many nights. (I was reminded of part of Paul Harding's [b:Tinkers|4957350|Tinkers|Paul Harding|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364258693s/4957350.jpg|5023150] in this section.) If I ever felt lost here, within a couple of sentences, I found my way again. An image started in the first section and continued in the second was done to great effect, both poignant and frightening. The third section, 'The Lighthouse,' continues on in more of the vein of the first, but with a very different feel to it (perhaps because fewer characters are on the island now), though once again we are always in an individual's mind.
I could probably go on and on -- for example, about Lily's 'vision,' and the shaping and capturing of that artistic vision -- but if I did, this would end up being way too long. I will say, though, that Lily's words to herself about what she would like her painting to be also describe this novel: feathery and evanescent on the surface ... but beneath ... clamped together with bolts of iron ...
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Найкраще, що я читала в цьому році
Це саме той випадок, коли ти по книзі можеш пізнати авторку. Ти відчуваєш, що кожне слово тут написано щиро і відверто, без претензійної вимушеності.
Після такої книги хочеться братися за кожну наступну роботу авторки, щоб якомога довше побути із Вірджинією Вулф та її світом.
Це саме той випадок, коли ти по книзі можеш пізнати авторку. Ти відчуваєш, що кожне слово тут написано щиро і відверто, без претензійної вимушеності.
Після такої книги хочеться братися за кожну наступну роботу авторки, щоб якомога довше побути із Вірджинією Вулф та її світом.
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
[5 Stars] I love it. Haunting and mysterious and the questions and ideas expressed in this are just so thought provoking. Also. I happen to really enjoy post-war fiction and in a lot of ways this is that.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
always a treat to indulge in woolf's steam of conciousness style as a contrast to the standard chronological narratives so often seen in fiction. i've got a love-hate relationship with it because, on the one side, the introspection forces you to know the characters quite intimately and makes you think about your own values and perceptions — but doing so means you have to pour so much attention to the book.
interjecting a long passage about a character's supposed motivations with a description of what another character in the current moment is jarring makes it challenging to keep track of who's who. i took several breaks from this in the process of reading it and lost sight of several key motifs.
would reread this but i'd need to so as a group read or under someone who's had to overanalyze this for an english class because it's too complex for a casual reading-in-bed session
interjecting a long passage about a character's supposed motivations with a description of what another character in the current moment is jarring makes it challenging to keep track of who's who. i took several breaks from this in the process of reading it and lost sight of several key motifs.
would reread this but i'd need to so as a group read or under someone who's had to overanalyze this for an english class because it's too complex for a casual reading-in-bed session