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veronicafrance 's review for:
L'Assommoir
by Émile Zola
"Life's a bitch and then you die." No spoilers, that about sums up the plot of this novel about poverty and alcoholism in 19th-century Paris. Perhaps not the most uplifting read in the middle of a pandemic. I like Zola normally, but I admit to finding it hard going. Not just the depressing subject matter but the long and repetitive depictions of squalor, poverty, despair, violence that afflict every single character. Nobody comes out of it well; life is a bitter competition for resources with little solidarity between people. Let's hope we can be better than this. Not in the mood for a more detailed review ... moving on to something lighter.