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davidaguilarrodriguez's Reviews (186)
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Annie Ernaux is a great writer - I think I want to read every single one of her books. The thing is that my gut is telling me each book, because it is so distilled and narrow in scope, will probably get like a 3.75-4 in my ratings, but that the sum of the work is far greater than the component parts, and her body of work will be like a 4.5/4.75 star. I say this because I tend to be a maximalist and save my 5 star ratings for big swing books and movies that try to capture the whole of life or some overarching vision of humanity. Each of her books is small, narrow, but nevertheless extremely well done, and ultimately I think her project as a writer is to explore the granularity of each experience in a way that captures the whole of life across multiple works. It’s really arbitrary to separate the books as books rather than say chapters or volumes in one larger book.
Regardless of all that, I’m a fan and I highly recommend this!
Regardless of all that, I’m a fan and I highly recommend this!
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Greatness should always be on its guard against the snares of happiness.
I really enjoyed this. Great writing, clever, funny, satirical and thought provoking. What if one of history’s great men tried to make a comeback but along the way became a complacent suburban watermelon merchant with a doting wife who he couldn’t tell his secret to because he’d wind up in the loony bin with all the other crazy fellas who thought they were Napoleon too?
I really enjoyed this. Great writing, clever, funny, satirical and thought provoking. What if one of history’s great men tried to make a comeback but along the way became a complacent suburban watermelon merchant with a doting wife who he couldn’t tell his secret to because he’d wind up in the loony bin with all the other crazy fellas who thought they were Napoleon too?
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A subtle love story about an aging courtesan and a very annoying rich kid
I’m so glad for people who are trying to push beyond the white male boomer perspective. This book is just so classic boomer/gen X racism and misogyny, all gussied up in a pseudo intellectual way. This writer is a lightweight run of the mill dime a dozen can find someone like him at any local bar complaining about liberals and migrants. Hateful stuff.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Xenophobia
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was fine. Good prose and very accurately depicts millennial life. But would it kill some of these prize winning books to have a story?
informative
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Bresson and I couldn’t be more different as directors and in our philosophical approaches to cinema. That being said, his book of maxims (following in the grand French tradition of Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, or Pascal’s Pensees) articulate his most sincerely held beliefs and provide a clear window into his process. Even if I disagree with him in my approach about 70% of the time, there are still some gems in the other 30%, and the most important thing for any director is to believe your way is the right way.
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
An easy breezy read, a walk through a certain kind of writer and artist Paris with some bitchy gays, sooo name-droppy, but fine
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved the mood of this one—Paris cafés, Pamplona bullfights, the drifting elegance of the Lost Generation. Hemingway captures postwar disillusionment with remarkable subtlety: the spiritual malaise, the shifting gender dynamics, the metaphor of Jake’s impotence playing off Brett’s boldness and the competing models of masculinity in Cohn, Mike, and Romero. The prose says so much between the lines, and that restraint is often masterful. That said, the novel meanders—it reflects the existential drift of its characters, yes, but lacks the narrative drive of something like Gatsby. And while its antisemitism, racism, and homophobia reflect the era, they’re kind of unexamined and hard to stomach.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Started really strong, propulsive. Kind of petered out a bit in the middle. But still a good read