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joanaprneves's reviews
47 reviews
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality by Angela Saini
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
Meaning a Life: An Autobiography by Mary Oppen
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.25
Mary Oppen is the wife of the poet George Oppen. When they met, they were both studying to be poets, but it seems that Mary let go of writing early on to paint and do watercolours whereas George always wrote, except during the great hiatus after the war and into the terrible McCarthy years where they had to leave the US because of their communist attachments and activities. As it were, the Oppens led an incredible life of social engagement and art so I had high expectations from Oppen’s autobiography. However, she seems to be too prudish and reserved to write in a more engaging and detailed way about their lives. There are more references to domestic animals than to her own daughter it seems, almost. Nevertheless, this is by no means a superficial book, it is just, somewhat reserved and not at all what one would expect from a communist married to a celebrated Jewish poet, herself an artist in her own right. But it has a lot of interesting information about the desire to live a meaningful life. Surprisingly, what I preferred were her early years because it depicts a life long gone that explains a a lot of current US politics about land and work.
August Blue by Deborah Levy
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Hot Milk by the same author is one of my favorite books. I also love the autobiographical trilogy by Levy. But mostly, I love her writing style. Perhaps style is not even a good word for it: her writing eye, as it were. She has the ability to describe an embodied mind with a very subtle, precise and sharp form of writing. She can state something terrible and then focus on what kind of sugar container the coffee is bright with. Which is how we usually experience things: our mind focus on the world around us at painful or exhilarating times and the objects that draw our attention then stick to those feelings and become what we usually call symbols. But Levy doesn’t let these things become anything other than what they are. She teaches us how it is us, embodied, sentient beings, who braid meanings and stuff together. It is a dynamic. She never wants us to cling to the characters through identification or even representation.
That said, Hot Milk was a deeper and more substantial read than August Blue. It is a pandemic book so it comes across as aloof at times, disconnected and self-involved. Nevertheless, I will re-read it because the writing is so powerful at times. It could awaken the dead with its pulsating vivacity. But as a book there were too many loose ends, even for a fragmented, at times almost surreal, narrative. The development of the relation with mothers and fathers is not completely unfolded- not in a plot driven way but in a philosophical one, as it is in Hot Milk. I find that Levy gives in too much to a sort of last century sense of European existence that doesn’t make much sense in a climate change, pandemic riddled time. The travels to Greece and Italy feel indulgent even if we can tell that they are not superficially undergone. The erotic relation with the mother and the doppelgänger is however powerfully narrated. The femininity of the characters is there alongside a non-binary hind, which is lovely and opens up a diversity of genderings that even questions the relations with the female body and the many phallic references.
Love Levy and hopefully this is a transitional book that will take her somewhere else as the chapter with mothers and female shadows perhaps is now closed.
That said, Hot Milk was a deeper and more substantial read than August Blue. It is a pandemic book so it comes across as aloof at times, disconnected and self-involved. Nevertheless, I will re-read it because the writing is so powerful at times. It could awaken the dead with its pulsating vivacity. But as a book there were too many loose ends, even for a fragmented, at times almost surreal, narrative. The development of the relation with mothers and fathers is not completely unfolded- not in a plot driven way but in a philosophical one, as it is in Hot Milk. I find that Levy gives in too much to a sort of last century sense of European existence that doesn’t make much sense in a climate change, pandemic riddled time. The travels to Greece and Italy feel indulgent even if we can tell that they are not superficially undergone. The erotic relation with the mother and the doppelgänger is however powerfully narrated. The femininity of the characters is there alongside a non-binary hind, which is lovely and opens up a diversity of genderings that even questions the relations with the female body and the many phallic references.
Love Levy and hopefully this is a transitional book that will take her somewhere else as the chapter with mothers and female shadows perhaps is now closed.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
The theme of the book is dark and harrowing. However, the writing is so luminous and engaging, so informative and poetic all at once that you cannot stop reading. It is organized chronologically as a collection of small essays with autobiographic detail. They are fragments of a memoir, that comes together as such but which also surpasses its category by investigating domestic abuse in the queer community. It becomes relevant as a story of abuse but also of archival heteronormativity.
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Did not finish book. Stopped at 47%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 47%.
I found the book frustrating because it did not manage well
It’s fragmentary form. There are two types of fragments in the book: theories, opinions, musings and storytelling. The storytelling fragments felt unfinished albeit very well written. However, the characters are uninteresting, they could have been described exactly as such in the 1950’s. The theories were exciting at first: nomadism, constellations thinking rather than linear thinking etc,, but they did not get anywhere but to draw a line between those who stay (the static ones) and those who leave (the nomadic ones). Perhaps this basic difference will be discussed after page 196 but I don’t have any more
time or interest to give it. Surprised the author won the Nobel Prize of literature but her other books may be great. She is a very very skilled writer. I do understand that this is auto-fiction - other at least is wants you to think it is - but I don’t wasn’t rendered in a way to really feel the traveling, the moving, the pilgrimage. Also, at a time where airplanes are responsible for a big part of climate change, it is irresponsible to write a book called “Flights” without explaining why one would wax poetic about airports.
It’s fragmentary form. There are two types of fragments in the book: theories, opinions, musings and storytelling. The storytelling fragments felt unfinished albeit very well written. However, the characters are uninteresting, they could have been described exactly as such in the 1950’s. The theories were exciting at first: nomadism, constellations thinking rather than linear thinking etc,, but they did not get anywhere but to draw a line between those who stay (the static ones) and those who leave (the nomadic ones). Perhaps this basic difference will be discussed after page 196 but I don’t have any more
time or interest to give it. Surprised the author won the Nobel Prize of literature but her other books may be great. She is a very very skilled writer. I do understand that this is auto-fiction - other at least is wants you to think it is - but I don’t wasn’t rendered in a way to really feel the traveling, the moving, the pilgrimage. Also, at a time where airplanes are responsible for a big part of climate change, it is irresponsible to write a book called “Flights” without explaining why one would wax poetic about airports.
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Summer by Edith Wharton
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway by David Bell
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
This is a useful contextualization if the cyborg theory by Donna Haraway, providing both a historical and critical perspective by noting reactions, interpretations by others and Haraway’s own re-definitions or it.