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2.5 rounded to 2 because despite the literary praise, to me, this book felt like a chore to get through.
This book is a lot of things: a love letter to Woolf's lover, an hinsight on old London and its literary scene, an enormous brick in lgbt literary history. Now, do I think this book is fun to read? Sometimes yes, I found it really amusing how the narrator seemed almost their own character, forced to stay at all times alongside Orlando, talking as things are happening in media res as they are writing the biography, but mostly no.
If you know about Woolf or Vita's life, or if you are passionate about english literature you might have a good time reading this as 80% of the book were literary, historical, and references to Vita's personal life, and the other 20% what I assume inside jokes between Vita and Virginia.
If you enjoy the feeling of third wheeling your friends while they flirt and talk in their own secret lanuage while you understand just about half of what is happening, then this might be the book for you. Again, the format of the fake biography and the cheeky narrator was really unique and I quite enjoyed that, but most of the things happening felt like a drunk conversation between two lovers. "Wouldn't it be funny if that happened?" "Yes! And now she does THIS", at least, that's how it felt to me. Excelent writing style, amazing premise, incredible descriptions of the different eras we visit, but the story and especially the characters (and especially Orlando) just weren't enough engaging to made me care about picking up the book again aside from the ever present thought of "I can't wait to finish this book so I have time to read something else"
This book is a lot of things: a love letter to Woolf's lover, an hinsight on old London and its literary scene, an enormous brick in lgbt literary history. Now, do I think this book is fun to read? Sometimes yes, I found it really amusing how the narrator seemed almost their own character, forced to stay at all times alongside Orlando, talking as things are happening in media res as they are writing the biography, but mostly no.
If you know about Woolf or Vita's life, or if you are passionate about english literature you might have a good time reading this as 80% of the book were literary, historical, and references to Vita's personal life, and the other 20% what I assume inside jokes between Vita and Virginia.
If you enjoy the feeling of third wheeling your friends while they flirt and talk in their own secret lanuage while you understand just about half of what is happening, then this might be the book for you. Again, the format of the fake biography and the cheeky narrator was really unique and I quite enjoyed that, but most of the things happening felt like a drunk conversation between two lovers. "Wouldn't it be funny if that happened?" "Yes! And now she does THIS", at least, that's how it felt to me. Excelent writing style, amazing premise, incredible descriptions of the different eras we visit, but the story and especially the characters (and especially Orlando) just weren't enough engaging to made me care about picking up the book again aside from the ever present thought of "I can't wait to finish this book so I have time to read something else"