miamiab's reviews
81 reviews

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Emma by Jane Austen

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Emma is considered to be Austen's best work, and I truly see why. It is definitely the least "romance-y" of her novels I've read, although it is, of course, at the center of the plot. At first I struggled with getting into it, as Emma is such an infuriating character--superior, short-sighted, controlling, and contrary for the sake of it. However, as the novel went on, she became someone I loved to hate.

The character development was the highlight of this novel... up until the final scenes. Throughout the book, I reveled in despising Emma's aristocratic snobbery just as much as I cheered for her when she worked to heal the damage she caused to Jane Fairfax and Miss Bates. Both of those relationships I felt highlighted different elements of Emma's growth. The harm she caused Jane was due to her selfishness and the smallness of her character. Whenever Jane was praised, it was a moment she was not the center of attention. Jane's successes highlighted her own shortcomings, largely due to her own lack of commitment and seriousness. And these were sins Emma found unforgivable, until she grew enough to realize that Jane had every right to shine beside her, and had done nothing to deserve her scorn (and outright sabotage). Miss Bates, on the other hand, only entered Emma's good graces once she learned to think about the feelings of anyone beyond herself. Emma began the novel assigning emotions and intentions to others based on her worldview with zero empathy applied. After being called out by Knightley, she truly seemed to take stock of her own self centered behavior and meaningfully worked to put herself in others' shoes before judging. This felt incredibly realistic--sometimes a sudden realization of the impacts of your own behavior is all it takes to make a sudden flip. I know I've felt it in myself, and it was satisfying to see it depicted in such a realistic way in Emma.

Emma herself grew meaningfully, but did not fully grow beyond all of her shortcomings and ultimately remained the same person. This was refreshing to me, as it seems like so many novels feel the need to make their characters learn from every mistake and grow to a point where they become someone else, or it feels forced and unrealistic. Emma learned the meaning of true compassion, not performative sympathy, but still kept her overall sense of superiority and class consciousness. While a bit more growth, particularly in her relationship with Harriet, would have been welcome (as in the movie), I felt her continued limitations made her feel real and grounded rather than a device to make a statement.

I thought it was interesting that Frank Churchill, my most disliked character, despite disliking him from his first appearance and disliking him all the way to the end, ultimately was the least egregious in falling into the novel's negative patterns of social climbing and prioritizing money over love. While he was a two faced rat bastard, he pursued a love match with a woman with no fortune to her name despite his own claim and family standing being tenuous and and snubbed. As a handsome man in line to inherit, and a direct line to attracting Emma, he could have ignored his secret commitments, or not pursued Jane in the first place, but he ultimately showed himself to be a man of his word and valued the love of a true connection over a socially acceptable one.

La Casa de los Espíritus by Isabel Allende

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced