A review by guccigabbs
The Waves by Virginia Woolf

3.0

for lack of better words, my experience with this book really was like a series of waves. i liked it, i didn’t, i liked this word, i didn’t like these pairings of words, i like this character, i didn’t understand another. as a whole, i enjoyed the story though i feel like i did not entirely capture or walk away with some grand revelation like i have with other of woolf’s works. though, this just makes me excited for when i revisit it in a couple of years and it speaks to me in an entirely different way.
now, while on a large scale it wasn’t my favorite, i adoreeeeeee the way solitude is talked about here. the line “i would willingly give all my money should you not disturb me but let me sit on and on, silent, alone” was a gem to come across all the way at the end. i read it over and over. i love writers because there is something so magical about being able to write about solitude in a way that is completely devoid of melancholy or “lacking-ness”. and maybe only certain people will understand the joy in that line—the joy of being alone. it is one of the worlds biggest flaws to have made being alone synonymous with being lonely. there is no better love, no love that i enjoy experiencing more, than being able to just sit with one’s self and quite literally do anything. to read with oneself. to walk with oneself. to talk with oneself. to watch a movie with oneself. to go grocery shopping with oneself. to have dinner with oneself. to go to bed and snuggle into oneself after a long day.
idk maybe it’s just the state i’ve always been used to, so i’ve found comfort in it. but i will forever believe that existing alone and finding joy in it is not at all a sad or pitiful experience.