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findusnuss's review against another edition
2.0
Die Geschichte ist eine, über die ich mir zuvor nie Gedanken gemacht habe, sie ist weit entfernt von meinem alltäglichen Leben und hat mir deshalb eine neue Sicht eröffnet.
Was ich allerdings anstrengend fand, war der Schreibstil des Autors. Die fehlenden Gänsefüßchen, wenigen Absätze, langen Kapitel, extrem detaillierte Beschreibung nebensächlicher Dinge hat mich beim Lesen eher Mühe gekostet. Da sind die Geschmäcker wohl einfach verschieden.
Auch viel es mir oft schwer mit der Hauptfigur zu sympathisieren, wobei ich nun, da ich das Buch (endlich) fertig gelesen habe denke, dass das vielleicht wichtig war, um sie am Ende verstehen zu können.
Was ich allerdings anstrengend fand, war der Schreibstil des Autors. Die fehlenden Gänsefüßchen, wenigen Absätze, langen Kapitel, extrem detaillierte Beschreibung nebensächlicher Dinge hat mich beim Lesen eher Mühe gekostet. Da sind die Geschmäcker wohl einfach verschieden.
Auch viel es mir oft schwer mit der Hauptfigur zu sympathisieren, wobei ich nun, da ich das Buch (endlich) fertig gelesen habe denke, dass das vielleicht wichtig war, um sie am Ende verstehen zu können.
angelayoung's review
5.0
I'd like to give this book 100 stars: it is the most lyrically beautiful, subtly evocative story of love, life, death, the natural world and the way we human beings are that I've read for a long long time. For ever, possibly. If you didn't know David Constantine was a poet (I didn't) you'd know from reading The Life-Writer's prose, but even more importantly what he writes about is what we all need to read to discover how we are when we're in love; to discover how we might be in death or when we're grieving the death of a beloved person; how to be more observant about the astonishing planet we live on, naturally, and how to think about our planet; and, for me at least, to recognise the way marvellous writing can elevate our thinking and our very being.
Here is a (male) writer who understands women emotionally and observes women acutely. For instance, about a pregnant young woman:
What else can a reader possibly ask of a novel? Please please please read The Life-Writer. You'll be missing a beautiful evocation of the fundamentals of life and some extraordinarily moving scenes written in astonishing language that will carry you directly into the hearts of the people you're reading about if you don't read it.
PS It's thanks to that wonderful publication The Reader http://www.thereader.org.uk/magazine.aspx that I discovered David Constantine and this book. Thank you.
Here is a (male) writer who understands women emotionally and observes women acutely. For instance, about a pregnant young woman:
In that short interval [she] has lapsed into her familiar remoteness, behind the mask of her pregnancy, not discourteously but as of right withdrawing into the centre of her waiting and attending, where she belongs.Here is a writer who loves the natural world:
Another thing in him, of course, another premise or the consequences of the premise of atheism, is love of the earth. I had a walk last weekend, hitched into Wales, walked a good long way and slept out on a hill facing Cader Idris. Cold, of course, but such beauty of moon and stars, the owls calling across me, till the hesitant rosy-fingered dawn. I brewed up a coffee, leaned in my bag against a tree, the rabbits came forth, quite close, the ground was silver-dewy, and I read his epigraph again, from Holderlin's Empedokles, you remember, the dedication of oneself to the earth, to love her faithfully, fearlessly, in her sufferings, in her mysteries, with a love that would last till death. And it's that, the love of the beautiful earth and the making of an answering beauty in art and in deed, that I'm most touched by at present. Revolt in jouissance, in the enjoyment and in the making of beauty, so that men and women will live lives fit to be looked at on the beautiful earth. That seems to be a project worth working for in the time allowed.Here is a writer who knows love:
I saw very clearly what you were like with me when we made love, how at the mercy of it you were, just as I was, both at the mercy of it, equally, and I saw then and I still see now how good that was, such a good thing, given to very few, and it was ours, in us, and in our heart of hearts ... if you woke this morning and looked in the mirror you would see us standing side by side and naked, wide-eyed, astounded, fearful, at the mercy of it, rejoicing, exultant, wholly given up to it in one another ... you ... will always know that it was glorious, being in it, head over heels in it, laughing and crying and whispering and shouting in it, you knew it was good, you knew your life, like mine, would need it for ever, having loved like that, been in love like that.I left bits out only so I wouldn't give anything away, otherwise I'd have quoted the whole piece. And here is a writer who knows death and grieving:
Rob will grieve as you are grieving, it can't be otherwise, for so much love, so much grief, it is just, your grief is a measure of your love, be glad if you can, rejoice if you can, grieving you love him, in your heart of hearts you would not want it any different.It reminds me of something I stumbled on the other day:
Grief is love with nowhere to go.
What else can a reader possibly ask of a novel? Please please please read The Life-Writer. You'll be missing a beautiful evocation of the fundamentals of life and some extraordinarily moving scenes written in astonishing language that will carry you directly into the hearts of the people you're reading about if you don't read it.
PS It's thanks to that wonderful publication The Reader http://www.thereader.org.uk/magazine.aspx that I discovered David Constantine and this book. Thank you.
mappingoutasky's review
5.0
This book gripped onto my heart and still hasn't let go.
Read for ENGL 4811: Is Beauty Just?
Read for ENGL 4811: Is Beauty Just?
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