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ursulagaylewin's reviews
68 reviews
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
5.0
not to be dramatic but i decided to start exploring science fiction with this book and it was a mistake because im............ discouraged. like im not sure how anything i read from this genre in the future could possibly top this . spoilers ahead
the first part describing the dawn of man is soooo wonderful and fascinating ... simple but so lyrical and evocative. love the cleverness of the moon monolith being an 'alarm'/the start of a breadcrumb trail. love the classic hal-9000 story. and those dreamlike final chapters where david is being subjected to (or rather guided through) these otherworldly scenes of.... the universe..... who knows what came over clarke when he was writing this section because appropriately, and in in the best way, it is so unlike the rest of the book. every page preceding his journey into the monolith is written (again, appropriately) technically and accessibly, and then with david's "oh my god! it's full of stars!" it somehow blooms seamlessly into this transcendent, psychedelic series of slow-moving IMAGES instead of words. i loved this part so much that while reading it i was worried that whatever was waiting for me on the final page of the book would inevitably pale in comparison & disappoint...... and then. and then there was the looping from end to beginning, the connection forged in the last few sentences between moon-watcher and david.
page 30, about moon-watcher: "For a few seconds Moon-Watcher stood uncertainly above his new victim, trying to grasp the strange and wonderful fact that the dead leopard could kill again. Now he was master of the world, and he was not quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something."
page 216 (the last page), about david: "He put forth his will, and the circling megatons flowered in a silent detonation that brought a brief, false dawn to half the sleeping globe. Then he waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something."
yeah sorry but this is THE perfect ending and i wont elaborate on that because i cant
the first part describing the dawn of man is soooo wonderful and fascinating ... simple but so lyrical and evocative. love the cleverness of the moon monolith being an 'alarm'/the start of a breadcrumb trail. love the classic hal-9000 story. and those dreamlike final chapters where david is being subjected to (or rather guided through) these otherworldly scenes of.... the universe..... who knows what came over clarke when he was writing this section because appropriately, and in in the best way, it is so unlike the rest of the book. every page preceding his journey into the monolith is written (again, appropriately) technically and accessibly, and then with david's "oh my god! it's full of stars!" it somehow blooms seamlessly into this transcendent, psychedelic series of slow-moving IMAGES instead of words. i loved this part so much that while reading it i was worried that whatever was waiting for me on the final page of the book would inevitably pale in comparison & disappoint...... and then. and then there was the looping from end to beginning, the connection forged in the last few sentences between moon-watcher and david.
page 30, about moon-watcher: "For a few seconds Moon-Watcher stood uncertainly above his new victim, trying to grasp the strange and wonderful fact that the dead leopard could kill again. Now he was master of the world, and he was not quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something."
page 216 (the last page), about david: "He put forth his will, and the circling megatons flowered in a silent detonation that brought a brief, false dawn to half the sleeping globe. Then he waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next.
But he would think of something."
yeah sorry but this is THE perfect ending and i wont elaborate on that because i cant
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
5.0
i had this copy-pasted in my notes about this book (probably from another's review): "it's about the level of passion, the size of the grand romantic gesture; devoting your life to destroying the people who kept you from your true love is an amazingly grand gesture"
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
3.0
kitchen is a sweet, quiet, tender, lonely meditation on grief that (although im not grieving) felt like a really almost uncomfortably close reflection of what my life has been like lately (themes of love as a verb, coming into ur own, 'tending to' other people, feverish coping obsession with domesticity, an almost insufferable awareness of ephemerality ETC) so i appreciate it for that however not very memorable and it was also very transphobic which threatens to ruin it
[spoiler] aside from the obvious, lots of things about the way erikos character was handled is weird to me, almost lazy or clumsy, e.g. the huge time skip between meeting eriko for the first time and then skipping right ahead to her death... in a way it's authentic because life really does feel like it progresses that fast and nonsensically sometimes. but as a reader it was just jarring
moonlight shadow was pretty much of the same caliber, sweet and lonely and sentimental. i liked it maybe a little more than kitchen
[spoiler] aside from the obvious, lots of things about the way erikos character was handled is weird to me, almost lazy or clumsy, e.g. the huge time skip between meeting eriko for the first time and then skipping right ahead to her death... in a way it's authentic because life really does feel like it progresses that fast and nonsensically sometimes. but as a reader it was just jarring
moonlight shadow was pretty much of the same caliber, sweet and lonely and sentimental. i liked it maybe a little more than kitchen