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A review by natreadsthings
Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
4.0
I understand,” I cried to myself, “I understand at last. Life, life, life, this is life, full to overflowing with every ecstasy and every agony. It is mine, mine to hug, to exhaust, to drain.
What a delight the narration was! A nostalgic, almost foreboding tone, as we go back in time to when Olivia, then 16, attended a school in France and fell in love with her female teacher. In just over 100 pages Dorothy Strachey managed to create a story that both captured my heart and made me feel it was dangling in front of me just out of reach to live in the moments myself. Despite what that might sound like I actually adore stories like that. Stories that make me feel but that still keep their distance from me. Stories about young people experiencing something for the first time, and then looking back at it all after it has ended. And of course, the boarding school setting, which I will always love, doesn't hurt.
The only thing that keeps this from being a favorite is that I took too long to read it. It was deliberate, at first, but then I realized I had waited too long to pick it up again and I felt my attention had waned a bit, but that's not the fault of the book. It was lovely, heartbreaking, with beautiful prose and nostalgia.
What a delight the narration was! A nostalgic, almost foreboding tone, as we go back in time to when Olivia, then 16, attended a school in France and fell in love with her female teacher. In just over 100 pages Dorothy Strachey managed to create a story that both captured my heart and made me feel it was dangling in front of me just out of reach to live in the moments myself. Despite what that might sound like I actually adore stories like that. Stories that make me feel but that still keep their distance from me. Stories about young people experiencing something for the first time, and then looking back at it all after it has ended. And of course, the boarding school setting, which I will always love, doesn't hurt.
The only thing that keeps this from being a favorite is that I took too long to read it. It was deliberate, at first, but then I realized I had waited too long to pick it up again and I felt my attention had waned a bit, but that's not the fault of the book. It was lovely, heartbreaking, with beautiful prose and nostalgia.