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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
So much depth and so many messages tangled in a bizarre and eye-opening, thought provoking narrative.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a weird wild book. I think I missed a lot of it because I haven't read the Bible, but it is still good and well written. It was a nice change from my normal reading.
TW: graphic sexual assault
No one can create an effortlessly fantastical, bleak, and disturbing world like Angela Carter can.
The 'passion' of Evelyn/Eve is purposefully two-fold: both that of ecstasy and of suffering. Carter's narrative moves at a near-breakneck speed (coming in at under 200 pages) but deftly manages to keep the reader along for the ride across a nation being torn apart by civil war, with a bizarre and violent look at gender identity and para-social relationships.
In short: it's a mindfuck in the best way.
At times difficult to read, re the TW above, and general level of cruelty/violence/destruction carried out by different characters.
This is Angela Carter pulling out all the stops.
No one can create an effortlessly fantastical, bleak, and disturbing world like Angela Carter can.
The 'passion' of Evelyn/Eve is purposefully two-fold: both that of ecstasy and of suffering. Carter's narrative moves at a near-breakneck speed (coming in at under 200 pages) but deftly manages to keep the reader along for the ride across a nation being torn apart by civil war, with a bizarre and violent look at gender identity and para-social relationships.
In short: it's a mindfuck in the best way.
At times difficult to read, re the TW above, and general level of cruelty/violence/destruction carried out by different characters.
This is Angela Carter pulling out all the stops.
A weird and wonderful adventure in understanding femininity.
Haven't read it yet, but if you are interested in the PC Music artist and queer/trans icon SOPHIE, this book is one of her favorites!
From AG Cook's eulogy (posted online) for SOPHIE:
" Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter, a novel published in 1977 that resonated so deeply with Sophie that on a few occasions she mentioned wanting to adapt it into an opera someday. It’s a surreal, brilliantly descriptive and oddly British dissection of so many things that were important to her. There are many lines that feel almost as if Sophie is narrating them, but this one passage from the very beginning feels apt to me:
'Our external symbols must always express the life within us with absolute precision; how could they do otherwise, since that life has generated them? Therefore we must not blame our poor symbols if they take forms that seem trivial to us, or absurd, for the symbols themselves have no control over their own fleshy manifestations, however paltry they may be the nature of our life alone has determined their forms.' "
From AG Cook's eulogy (posted online) for SOPHIE:
" Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter, a novel published in 1977 that resonated so deeply with Sophie that on a few occasions she mentioned wanting to adapt it into an opera someday. It’s a surreal, brilliantly descriptive and oddly British dissection of so many things that were important to her. There are many lines that feel almost as if Sophie is narrating them, but this one passage from the very beginning feels apt to me:
'Our external symbols must always express the life within us with absolute precision; how could they do otherwise, since that life has generated them? Therefore we must not blame our poor symbols if they take forms that seem trivial to us, or absurd, for the symbols themselves have no control over their own fleshy manifestations, however paltry they may be the nature of our life alone has determined their forms.' "
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Novels that have you saying “what the hell, sure” to every new plot point