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thelanabear 's review for:
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf
'To read this poem one must have myriad eyes.'
The Waves is a difficult read. It is poetry disguised as prose. This epic poem, for that is what it is, is best read lingeringly. Each phrase, each chaotic moment and thoughts, often eventually contradicting, of the four 'speaking' characters, there are five main characters in this book, and a splendor of supporting ones, is eloquent and elaborate.
But through the chaos that Bernard, Neville, Louis, Sarah, Jinny and Rhoda incite, there is a calm. Woolf, with careful hand and print, controls the state of affairs even when it seems that the aforementioned have run off with their own variant of self-interpretation. The character always returns; to phrases, the nile, the accent, the family, to love, to boats on water.
However, the books final chapter rather than including the group of six as it started with ends with the phrase-maker, suitably the story-teller, who runs down the markers of each characters life, including the pivotal but silent Percival. Although it is fitting that this man, Bernard, should outlast his companions and have the last word, as it so so much him. The reader however was cheated of the death, the suicide, of Rhoda, and the ends of all the other characters. Although, if a book can create such frustration than evidently it is an overwhelming and succulent novel about life.
The Waves is a difficult read. It is poetry disguised as prose. This epic poem, for that is what it is, is best read lingeringly. Each phrase, each chaotic moment and thoughts, often eventually contradicting, of the four 'speaking' characters, there are five main characters in this book, and a splendor of supporting ones, is eloquent and elaborate.
But through the chaos that Bernard, Neville, Louis, Sarah, Jinny and Rhoda incite, there is a calm. Woolf, with careful hand and print, controls the state of affairs even when it seems that the aforementioned have run off with their own variant of self-interpretation. The character always returns; to phrases, the nile, the accent, the family, to love, to boats on water.
However, the books final chapter rather than including the group of six as it started with ends with the phrase-maker, suitably the story-teller, who runs down the markers of each characters life, including the pivotal but silent Percival. Although it is fitting that this man, Bernard, should outlast his companions and have the last word, as it so so much him. The reader however was cheated of the death, the suicide, of Rhoda, and the ends of all the other characters. Although, if a book can create such frustration than evidently it is an overwhelming and succulent novel about life.