Eleni
Bitesized and well-suited for a TEDx talk, but unsurprisingly only momentarily transgressive. An accessible and necessary read for misogynists and people that are completely clueless.
ian mcewan is a genius - witty metatextuality permeates every line with a spring in its step. eloquent, gripping, and funny. but beyond that, also bold and acute. an undeniably unique read.
3.75 to be precise.
A big range in the quality, flow, and rigorousness of the essays.
The Double Standard of Ageing was definitely my favourite. Well structured and paced, convincing, an appropriate length, and eloquent.
The Third World of Women was radical and acute which I found refreshing, but some claims felt slightly unsubstantiated.
Fascinating Fascism perhaps had the most niche and interesting thesis out of all of them, but was rather disappointing as a whole. It felt patchy at points and she lost me at many instances. A lot of interesting and novel points made though, and captivating link between art, politics, and desire.
The Salmagundi Interview was the one I struggled to get through the most. Most importantly, I found Sontag's attitude rather defensive and condescending and she easily dismissed important points raised. I really pushed myself to get through it.
Overall liked it because of the first two essays. I will have to go back to the Salmagundi Interview to properly comprehend it.
A very captivating and smart plot, yet I was disappointed with the quality of writing and the lack of vivid imagery as well as the few grammatical mistakes I spotted.
madness and female hysteria and voices and twisting and turning the truth and your sister disbelieving you and coke and coke and rum and paper lanterns and poker and then the storm is silenced
Clever allegories, accessible writing, well-substantiated. Deducted points because it sometimes felt like there were a lot of tangents. Interesting to read, annoying when you are cramming seminar reading. Love Murray though.
Roy is undeniably a genius - her mastery intertwining the themes of Identity, Womanhood, Family and Death in such a fluid but eloquent manner is rare. The imagery is rich, colourful and odoriferous; reading the book shifts you from reality and wraps you in a cocoon full of the smells, culture and images of India. Despite the setting, the universality and timelessness of the narrative is certain, with Roy's extraordinary skills making us subconsciously question what makes our identity us humans.
I just put the book down and the best way to describe what I am feeling is confused.
I enjoyed the first half of the book, but as it went on, the fact that the female characters were exclusively male-gaze constructed became incredibly unbearable (lol).
I really enjoyed how Time was weaved in the book and the metatextuality of the eternal return and what not. I think perhaps this was the book's strongest asset, and what can I say, I love a good use of Time.
Got very confused from the shit / kitsch part onwards although that may necessitate a re-read from my side.
Overall, don't know how to feel. I need to digest it more.
Read in the tube from Heathrow airport home. Infuriating, frustrating, itchy. In a good way. I am not particularly sure whether Beckett is my thing, but I admire his work.
Beckett knows how to put a couple of banal words together and shift tectonic plates in your mind.
effectively disorienting and terrifyingly beautiful, this book will touch you. so many beautiful images and scenes that feel almost biblical in their omnipotence and truth they reveal. marks deducted because the disorientation was a bit too disorienting at points.
Camus never fails to strike the right chords; all I will say is that the last pages of the book sum up everything I aspire to be and everything I need to adopt to be at peace with myself. An unexpectedly engaging novel that purposely adopts a banal narrative to trigger the reader in reflecting upon other aspects of the story.
Salinger's narratives make you one of their own - they pull you closer and then push you away; the inherent ambivalence of the characters is what makes it so raw and real. he manages to delicately put inexplainable feelings into words; feelings you thought you were the only one that felt, feelings that feel so personal, idiosyncratic, and nuanced, but Salinger exposes them, in a paradoxically subtle way.
one of the greats.
Natasha Brown's prose is characterised by sharp witticism that humbles you on a personal scale but also on a wider one - leading to stark realisations about race and class.
Bold and innovative. Gladwell purports his thesis in an eloquent but accessible manner. Scratches your head with the examples he puts forth. I did however sometimes feel like he was giving the benefit of the doubt a lot, relying a tad too much on the influence of the unconscious and removing a great load of the burden of individual responsibility. Nevertheless, an interesting and enjoyable read.
This novel flows to-and-fro the tangible and the intangible, the real and the imaginary. Kundera weaves banal words to create texts that touches your most elusive thoughts.
Perhaps not its primary reason for commendation by most, but a book whose narratives of femininity and womanhood are crucial to contemporary feminism. Chantal's grappling with her identity is inherently a challenge to the patriarchal status quo.
Its depiction of identity was however rather meta textual, and even tangential, if I might assert that, which makes me wonder whether the title was appropriate in the first place. But what is appropriate anyway?
Nonetheless, this book will leave you lingering, longing for more.
Tender and hopeless and pathetic and utterly devastating. Dostoevsky knows how to write a pathetic man.
While grappling with important themes, perspectives, and emotions, it is executed rather flimsily, with an attempt at a style that feels glossy but imported. Hamid's desire to crystallise his life is genuine, the thoughts resonate with an educational immigrant like me, and so does the desire to "make it" in the big city, while feeling irrevocably nostalgic. But the attempts at depth and philosophical examination are merely transient and feel unexplored.
Touched a very personal and intimate part of me. Woolf created the ephemeral, independent, elusive woman archetype centuries before we embodied it, only to crash it at the end in an expedient move of 3 mere lines. Acute criticism of Edwardian materialism, elegantly, but also sarcastically, illustrated.
Short in length, but nothing short of substance.