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A review by embfitz
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time. Some random thoughts with no spoilers.
-- This is one of those books where saying you "like" it doesn't feel the same as when you like other things. Will I read it again? Maybe. Anytime soon? Probably not. Will I revisit sections soon? Definitely.
-- That opening section is just, BAM. If I was teaching right now, I'd absolutely show it to my class.
-- Are there other books in which the female main character's aspirations are thwarted, and it's not directly tied to an oppressive figure or a romance?
-- If I had to choose a way to describe this book quickly, 'Speedboat in a terrarium' would be close.
-- I've seen some complaints that the book has no plot, and I genuinely don't understand them. Is it that a key moment is buried in lots of other detail? Because yeah, that's true...
-- It's hard to know what to do with or about anger -- as a person, and as a writer. (When I teach, that ALWAYS comes up. If I ever write a craft essay, that'll be the subject.) I think the responses this book has generated -- perhaps especially the ones that go after Messud personally -- just underline that point. I believe this double after realizing that a very high percentage of what happens in the outside world of the novel is physically violent, and nothing in its environment is.
-- This is one of those books where saying you "like" it doesn't feel the same as when you like other things. Will I read it again? Maybe. Anytime soon? Probably not. Will I revisit sections soon? Definitely.
-- That opening section is just, BAM. If I was teaching right now, I'd absolutely show it to my class.
-- Are there other books in which the female main character's aspirations are thwarted, and it's not directly tied to an oppressive figure or a romance?
-- If I had to choose a way to describe this book quickly, 'Speedboat in a terrarium' would be close.
-- I've seen some complaints that the book has no plot, and I genuinely don't understand them. Is it that a key moment is buried in lots of other detail? Because yeah, that's true...
-- It's hard to know what to do with or about anger -- as a person, and as a writer. (When I teach, that ALWAYS comes up. If I ever write a craft essay, that'll be the subject.) I think the responses this book has generated -- perhaps especially the ones that go after Messud personally -- just underline that point. I believe this double after realizing that a very high percentage of what happens in the outside world of the novel is physically violent, and nothing in its environment is.