melissa

I made a purpose to read this book, in a sunny spot, outside, with a good cup of coffee and nice music, and it was such a nice experience. I think this page pretty much sums up the feel of the book. It's about love in all its forms, from the all encompassing to the smallest fascinating details. From others to yourself.

Mixed feelings about this one, as it's neither a book of poems, nor are they purely letters. This book is a collection of “poetic excerpts” Qabbani chose to put in a collection, from letters he has sent to past lovers. We neither know to whom the letters were written, nor in what context they were composed.

Another problem I have is his relationship to women, it goes from “i love you, and i want to liberate you from society” to “i love you, you are mine and i can do with you what ever i want, i don't care what you feel” and back, and also without the context, I don't know what kind of evolution he's going through.
However, I love his style, and how over the top he is. It's like destroying the world and torturing oneself is the only logical step after falling in love, and i find that hilarious.

It's a collection of love poems/love letters. I don't know if they were directed to someone specific, or if they were just a collection of musings or recollections. But what I'm certain of, is that Ghada Al Samman is a person in love with the idea of love, and in love with being in love. Whoever the person she's talking about is, her description of her feelings and diving into her psyche, has been a really nice adventure.

I liked a couple of poems, but it reads more like a rhyme exercise book.

I think these are the most beautiful love letters i've ever read, and the saddest.

It's a shame Ghada Al Samman's letters are not included, cause the way the letters are compiled, the affair seems totally one sided, obsessive and somehow delusional. Maybe someday we'll get the other side of the story.

I was going to give this book a 2/5 star rating, but the last couple of pages saved it.

My main problem is the first half of the novel, Saramago believes himself doing a social commentary but it's obvious he has no idea how society, government, religion or just life in general works. His commentary felt more like the thought of a teenager writing their first diy comic.

Second problem were the tangents. They were neither interesting, funny nor observational.
The second half is just 80 pages on thoughts that if they were poetic would've worked, maybe something was lost in translation here cause anything could be salvaged with a good literary style. Maybe it's just that English is not made for this, latin languages tend to be beautiful while saying nothing.

The last 20 pages were the best, they were human, and that's always good.

She should've at The Love Quotient. Like how many autistic characters can she force on that same family. Anyway, i'm gonna put this ridiculous excerpt here cause it would be a shame for it to go forgotten

“In China, I was sent to reeducation camps, where I worked and starved in the fields.
“Our family wasn't safe because Gung gung was a wealthy landowner. I wasn't safe. That's what I learned from them-it's not safe to be different.”

So much prejudice against rich feudal lords

The Orientalism is a bit icky at first, like do western writers believe Arabic culture is all made up, or are they assuming they're basing these universes on fact? Anyway, it get's better when Abdullah leaves Zanzib. It's like Aladdin on lsd, but Aladdin itself is hard to stomach lol, still a really well knitted series of events. Very entertaining.

A classic and a very cozy read, looking forward to finding and watching the animated adaptations.

Found out about Kate DiCamillo from a tweet that sounded very sweet, and it was an accurate reflection of the author and the book. It's rare to read a children's book that's not condescending, it's a very genuine book.

Heine captures beautifully the darkness in the casual american routine, my favourite poems/flash fictions:
-Scarecrow Joe
-Digital World
-Voice to skull transmission
-Ever Ever Land

I wanted to read the book because of it being referenced in “La vie d'Adele” and now over 10 years have passed and i've completely forgotten most of the movie lol.

But anyway, i'm glad i read it, a french classic, and like all french classics they're always lovely to read. I still haven't figured out if Marivaux chose not to finish the book or if it happened accidentally, the change in interlocutor mid way makes me think it's the former. I could've read another 1000 page, it's entertaining to see how humans were in the 18th century, and how similar they still are now. Enjoying reading the analysis too.

Thinking of rewatching the movie or at least its beginning, to remember what parallelism other than the title there is between the two.

Accurate to the point of caricature, but sadly this is how children are used as ammunition in the battles amongst adults. Still quite funny tho, but with the many allusions i found myself at times as lost as poor Maisie.

Mary Oliver's poems are the closest there is in feeling to Haikus in the English language, so much beauty in such simplicity, and beautiful attention to detail. I just love the feeling i get reading her poems, i can feel nature through her words, and it's such a good way to relax.

This has been the best one thus far story-wise, some panels were hilarious.

It's good to finally read about our people's mythology when it's all happening in our land and it's part of our History. Main problem i got was the highfalutin translation, it felt too British and got me out of the Canaanite mood.

Second, the analysis is too jewish-centric, no mentions of the Christians and Arabs and the parallelisms there, even though these are the cultures that mainly stayed in the land. Barely any mention of the greeks and babylonians in the analysis too, it just felt (with the amount of isr3li professors and universities mentioned) like it's part of a zi0nist plan to take Ugarit and every Phoenician city on their way, as “land of the israelites”, and here's our proof.

Edit: Checked the author, apparently he teaches Biblical studies in Harvard. So it's an interesting angle, when we know that judaism started from the land of Canaan, just a weird angle for a book of stories. I would've read that essay independently and preferred to enjoy the myths on their own, with a more general analysis.

Pure Orientalism from a guy who visited the “middle east” (israel).
The info about Baal are from the Ugarit tablets and the Bible, so nothing new there. He just takes his time writing every reference of Baal in the Bible, which didn't need 70 pages, more like two. He mentions his skiing in “israel” in between, which is never a good sign of someone knowing the native culture of the land. Then he makes up rituals for Baal, if the book wasn't ridiculous enough.

If it were actual rituals he's describing or social events, that could've been passable, but this western concept of doing rituals to benefit yourself only is so weird. You're burning a candle and offering meat to a god to get money? Anyway, usual american nonsense.

«D'abord, il produisait un “vrai” roman, mais aussi il s'amusait» (from the post-scriptum)

And that was obvious throughout. I heard about the book when i was a teen, it took me ten years to find it in a bookstore and another ten to finally read it. I thought it would be an exercise, a group of texts or poems, but i did not expect to read an actual novel with an interesting plot and very silly humour. Perec was not struggling with the condition he forced on himself but he was enjoying every bifurcation, taking the plot along with him. And you enjoy with him his choices; the loan words, the switching of languages, the continuous lists, the puns, the meta references to the missing letter... a very enjoyable book that should be taken as it was intended, a playground of a writer.

There is something as too many run-on sentences and too much angst. It's a fast read but not much happens.

It's such a confusing book. How can someone understand how so clearly how humanity works, but still be racist, anti-semitic and colonial. Some paragraphs were brilliant but mostly it was about how even though America is flawed it's still the greatest country, brushing over slavery and the genocide of the natives, cause they were savages.

Thought I would dislike reading a collection of quotations instead of full on essays, but it reads like a mix of Lao Tzu, Art of War and The Prince. Really good guide communist guide, and well collected into chapters, from how to prepare to war, anti-imperialism/anti-capitalism, improving the Communist Party, working together, the dangers of Liberalism, Women Equality, Education and Art etc...

It's a good book and well written. I understand why it's so many people's favourite, however, it's not mine. I enjoyed it, it gave me a lot of thoughts to ponder, but it didn't really make me feel. I loved Teresa, she's my favourite character, just wanted to give her hug, but I could not identify with Tomas for a second, Sabina is cool, I guess Franz is okay, I like their story anyway. I enjoyed the narrator's musings, critiquing the work with references and parallelism, the analysis of Oedipus and Beethoven's Es Muss Sein stand out, but I prefer to do my own analysis. Like the author wrote the story and explained to you what to understand from each sentence, and even though it feels like the book is pushing me to think, it felt more like the book is telling me what to think, which is problem when you don't really agree with the thoughts. And after you're done with the book, there's nothing else to muse about, because the author already told you every analysis you could have, which is why I'm having a hard time writing this review. Like what else is there to say, when the analysis is already part of the book.

All in all, I really liked the book, glad I finally read it, it's just a different style from the kind of books I usually fall in love with.

I loved this book! It's funny, whimsical, socialist and has a bunch of dragons in it.

It's fine. Like fun book, for the oppressed women to dream of this Ladyland, but it's not much of a rethinking of society.

I did love the setting and the idea of the book, but I have a problem with the story structure. It's a recurring problem (imo) in YA books, and it's the feeling of the story only happening around the protagonist, as if life freezes where he doesn't exist, and only continues when he starts paying attention. I did enjoy the read, thus the 4/5 rating, but I'm not gripped enough to start the second book asap.