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ellaroshea 's review for:
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf
*4.5 stars
super interestingly written. it is truly like waves and like nothing I've ever read before. it's entirely in direct speech which does take a little bit of getting used to, but when you ease in it's genuinely like being told a story, being part of the characters' circle as they sit round in a playroom and recount their daily life. it's super interesting in terms of modernism too, compared to orlando, as I can see how woolf is deconstructing ideas of what literature is and plot/character/time throughout her works. i've heard that woolf was considered to be autistic by many people and I think this book is a very autistic one in my opinion; the perception and detail and innovation with which she writes is I think symptomatic of a worldview that is incredibly detail-oriented, in tune with nature and deviating from what is considered typical in literature in many ways. I think also modernism helps with this, as the literary voice diverges from what is considered 'typical'. there are a few passages, particularly by rhoda, which also paint very beautifully the concept of masking. this book is i think way too abstract to be didactic but the impressionist painting with words of the feeling of copying others and watching them and being slightly out of step is very powerful. it's so fluid as a text and so intriguing for me to read. it's more of an experience than a narrative and i really liked that. bear in mind also though that there are antisemitic/racist tropes or subliminal sentiments at points in the writing, which is somewhat interesting in context of my knowledge of how these tropes have been used literarily, but also it's not very nice to read! keep it in mind and know about them; knowing that things like this often shape our views of the people around us it is important to recognise and deconstruct them.
super interestingly written. it is truly like waves and like nothing I've ever read before. it's entirely in direct speech which does take a little bit of getting used to, but when you ease in it's genuinely like being told a story, being part of the characters' circle as they sit round in a playroom and recount their daily life. it's super interesting in terms of modernism too, compared to orlando, as I can see how woolf is deconstructing ideas of what literature is and plot/character/time throughout her works. i've heard that woolf was considered to be autistic by many people and I think this book is a very autistic one in my opinion; the perception and detail and innovation with which she writes is I think symptomatic of a worldview that is incredibly detail-oriented, in tune with nature and deviating from what is considered typical in literature in many ways. I think also modernism helps with this, as the literary voice diverges from what is considered 'typical'. there are a few passages, particularly by rhoda, which also paint very beautifully the concept of masking. this book is i think way too abstract to be didactic but the impressionist painting with words of the feeling of copying others and watching them and being slightly out of step is very powerful. it's so fluid as a text and so intriguing for me to read. it's more of an experience than a narrative and i really liked that. bear in mind also though that there are antisemitic/racist tropes or subliminal sentiments at points in the writing, which is somewhat interesting in context of my knowledge of how these tropes have been used literarily, but also it's not very nice to read! keep it in mind and know about them; knowing that things like this often shape our views of the people around us it is important to recognise and deconstruct them.