A review by mmcloe
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

adventurous challenging dark funny informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A deeply inscrutable novel that demands multiple readings - too smart for me at this point in my reading journey but I look forward to my returns to it. A chronicle of the "night wood" of the modern psyche in an increasingly meaningless world: attempts to grasp at diagnosis or identity or class don't yield anything but screaming at a dog in a ruined church in the night. Like most modernist literature, Nightwood plays at the border between reactionary lamentation of bygone aristocracy and cold description of the emptying of all meaning following WWI. Hard to tell where Barnes ends up but the celebration of queer night scenes, messy lesbianism, decadent trans women is a warm light in the novel and the era.

Hard to read and follow but the final chapter is absolutely masterful.