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A review by jose_kg
The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I really wanted to love this book. It was recommended to me at school but I hadn't read Jane Eyre at the time and wasn't really up for it. Once I had read Jane Eyre and realised what an amazing book it is I was really excited to give this book a go. I am glad I read it but I'm not going to recommend it to others.
The whole book felt very dream like and it was hard to keep up with what was happening when, what was true and what was madness. I appreciate this is probably the point, a fair amount of the book is from Antoinette's perspective and you have to question what is real, but I actually found Mr Rochester's part more the more confusing of the two perspectives.
My main take aways from this book are 1) that I came to really hate Mr Rochester for being such an awful person who was so easily swayed by gossip and racism, to the point I had to disconnect him from Jane's love because there is no way she could love such an awful man. 2) it is really hard as a modern reader to read anything from the perspective of a white ex-slave owner, even when a more modern writer is trying to show how awful those attitudes were. It makes it hard to love a character who uses the N word and believes that black people are fundamentally lesser to white people, even when this is historically appropriate for a person with this background in this time period.
Overall it is an interesting book, but I enjoyed Part 1 much better than the rest.
The whole book felt very dream like and it was hard to keep up with what was happening when, what was true and what was madness. I appreciate this is probably the point, a fair amount of the book is from Antoinette's perspective and you have to question what is real, but I actually found Mr Rochester's part more the more confusing of the two perspectives.
My main take aways from this book are 1) that I came to really hate Mr Rochester for being such an awful person who was so easily swayed by gossip and racism, to the point I had to disconnect him from Jane's love because there is no way she could love such an awful man. 2) it is really hard as a modern reader to read anything from the perspective of a white ex-slave owner, even when a more modern writer is trying to show how awful those attitudes were. It makes it hard to love a character who uses the N word and believes that black people are fundamentally lesser to white people, even when this is historically appropriate for a person with this background in this time period.
Overall it is an interesting book, but I enjoyed Part 1 much better than the rest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism