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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think I went into this novel expecting it to create fire works of the brain. Sadly "Prime of Miss Jean Broadie" did not. But still an important novel.
What is this novel about. Well for me it is about, maturity, identity and sexuality. Teacher Miss Jean Broadie who is in her Prime attempts to mould six young prodigies.
Miss Jean Broadie is a wonderful creation, strong, jealous, stubborn, passionate, devious, and fanatical. Broadie holds the whole novel together, she is woven into its very spine. If Broadie was the spine, Edinburgh is the novel's essence. You can almost taste the smokey salty air, and feel the ancient cobbled streets under your feet.
I can see why 'Jean Broadie' was and is an important feminist text. We females are not dainty creatures, nor are we modest or proper. We are sexual creatures through and through, who not only enjoy the act very much, but are smart and catty enough to use it as a weapon.
I only wish I had read this novel when I younger, still trying to come to terms with becoming a women. Though I think I have have seen this novel as a book about a slightly amusing Fascist teacher.
What is this novel about. Well for me it is about, maturity, identity and sexuality. Teacher Miss Jean Broadie who is in her Prime attempts to mould six young prodigies.
Miss Jean Broadie is a wonderful creation, strong, jealous, stubborn, passionate, devious, and fanatical. Broadie holds the whole novel together, she is woven into its very spine. If Broadie was the spine, Edinburgh is the novel's essence. You can almost taste the smokey salty air, and feel the ancient cobbled streets under your feet.
I can see why 'Jean Broadie' was and is an important feminist text. We females are not dainty creatures, nor are we modest or proper. We are sexual creatures through and through, who not only enjoy the act very much, but are smart and catty enough to use it as a weapon.
I only wish I had read this novel when I younger, still trying to come to terms with becoming a women. Though I think I have have seen this novel as a book about a slightly amusing Fascist teacher.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book had a very interesting concept, but unforunately it failed to engage me past the halfway point. In it, we meet schoolteacher Jean Brodie, who ignores the curriculum, and instead teaches her six chosen girls topics she herself finds interesting, usually steeped in her own personal opinions, many of them political. Throw into the mix that Spark always seems to strike a good balance between humor and gravity, and her characters are both funny and well rounded, and all of this sounds very promising.
But in the second half of the book the execution of the plot was less than good. The story itself was also less interesting in this half. There was quite a lot of foreshadowing, bordering on spoilers, so that when the ending came, it was just a wrap up of what the reader already knew. It just fell flat. The jumps forward in time, away from the main narrative, made me think of Margaret Atwood, but in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie these time jumps are not fleshed out, they are not really meaningful parts of the story, just little one line or one paragraph mentions like "many years from now, this person would have that occupation, and sometimes she thought back on her school days".
The most interesting parts of the book was trying to understand Jean, (who’s only ever described from the outside), the psychology of her close bonds with her chosen few pupils, "the Brodie set", and the extent of the control she has over them. Well worth a read, just not as good as I had hoped.
But in the second half of the book the execution of the plot was less than good. The story itself was also less interesting in this half. There was quite a lot of foreshadowing, bordering on spoilers, so that when the ending came, it was just a wrap up of what the reader already knew. It just fell flat. The jumps forward in time, away from the main narrative, made me think of Margaret Atwood, but in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie these time jumps are not fleshed out, they are not really meaningful parts of the story, just little one line or one paragraph mentions like "many years from now, this person would have that occupation, and sometimes she thought back on her school days".
The most interesting parts of the book was trying to understand Jean, (who’s only ever described from the outside), the psychology of her close bonds with her chosen few pupils, "the Brodie set", and the extent of the control she has over them. Well worth a read, just not as good as I had hoped.
reflective
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
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, War
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I found the book slow and hard to follow. The Narrator skips around the time line so often and suddenly that it's hard to follow any narrative that might be.
Very peculiar. The structure of the story as well as the story itself was quite unusual. I enjoyed it though. It will stay with me for a while I think and make me wonder.