jelly
This was my first story by Balzac and I really enjoyed it, even if it was sad. I like that Balzac framed the story as a discussion between two strangers, so that we now that he survives in the end. I like stories when I know the ending, and I wonder while reading how it can be possible. I love this sentence so much: “The Desert is God without mankind.” and when he says that the desert is “everything and nothing” A passion in the desert is such a great title, as passion refers to a religious passion as well as a romantic passion. It was so good!
it's also a racist story, when Balzac says that Arab people are animals: “So you have been eating some Arab or other, have you? That doesn't matter. They're animals just the same as you are.”
Reading this story makes me want to spend a night in the desert, and look at the sky and the moon reflected on the sand.
Read and reviewed: 2022-06-13
To me, the story is about the way time is not linear, but infinite, always merging and creating new versions for each possibility in life. I have heard of this concept before, and I do believe in it. Now, I don't feel like the rendering of this concept was very good in this story. The fact that it was about WWI and spies made it even less interesting to me. That was my first story from Borges, and I had no idea he was interested in these concepts. Now, I want to read another one of his stories.
Read and reviewed: 2022-06-05
I liked it a lot and read it in one sitting. I liked how each chapter was so short, like a mini story. Each character from the neighborhood teaching her something about life, showing her what she wants or more often what she didn't want to become. I liked how the garden became this place of freedom, hidden from the mothers, until it has become the place of no return. It feels like everything is happening outside, or seen through a window, or heard from another floor. It's like the space inside is too small. A bigger space, a bigger house, a bigger garden, a room for herself to think and write, looking at the window and thinking about the space back in the country. The desire to escape, to be free, to ‘be found' to ‘escape' the mango street. So many characters, so many dreams, so little place.
Read and reviewed: 2022-06-04
I DNF The Vegetarian. I read the first chapter and already it was quite edgy and graphic the way books were in the 2000's. I started reading chapter 2 and I was like... no... that's a tacky, predictable and just huurg plot. It felt cheap. And the idea of this medicated woman who becomes a fantasy and gets to be manipulated and told and moved around... Really not what I want to read right now. I'm glad the 2000's is in the past ha ha
dnf and reviewed: 2022-05-30
2,5 stars
At first, I was not very interested, the writing was not that good, but then I laughed at the end of the story, so it is still a success. It's interesting that he would believe that God is faultless and immediately assumes his fellow humans are crooks. Also, did it actually rain silver coins? I was not sure if it was a metaphor or some fantastical element. A field covered in them would have been a great fortune!
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-29
1-1 his new crush looks surprisingly similar to this current boyfriend huhuhu. He has a type ^^
1-3 omg this actual boyfriend is a bully. Calling him ““useless”” because he hasn't answered a text message. That's some verbal abuse. I am glad he won't stay long with this one!
1-5 omg Ben is scary! I'm so glad Nick diverted everyone's attention and that it didn't go further!! Also, it was so cute when Nick was fixated on Charlie running huhuhu
1-6 Nick is trying to find an excuse to spend more time with Charlie huhuhu. Also, drummers are cool
1-8 omg this is too cuuuuute
1-12 Omg I so scared when he went to meet with Ben again! This guy is such a jerk omg I want to punch him. Nick is the best, and now he has the face of Charlie stuck in his mind huhuhu He likes him, he likes him!!
Well well well, I read the entire Heartstopper series (1-4) I care so much for Charlie and Nick omg omg omg
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-26
Recommended by the Harvard Class,”“Masterpieces of World Literature”. Read it in one sitting. Loved it!
Omg I love that the first recorded novel is a queer love story in the end huhuhu. Gilgamesh rejected the goddess of love Ishtar, who then kills his lover as a punishment. Then, Gilgamesh goes to search for the recipe to immortality to revive his lover. But it's not possible at the end. But at the moment, Gilgamesh is so fucked up. and Enkidu was just created to fight and stop Gilgamesh from rapping every bride in the city. Such a mess.
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-22
Chapter 1: the writing is so beautiful I'm already so intrigued why Manderley is no more, and why they are living in a small bedroom hotel instead?!
Chapter 4: omg this book is already so good! I love that we know from the start that later in their lives, they are going be okay, enjoying peace and safety, and having a nice daily routine. Their time at Manderley is going to be so tumultuous, I can sense it so easily!! Also, Du Maurier must have loved botany, her descriptions of nature, woods and flowers are so vivid!
Chapter 6: what a turn of events, they got married. There is something romantic about this sudden proposal and adventure, but also a dark presage in the form of her dreams, of the tangerine, and of Mrs. Van Hopper's words. I know they are now older and happy in a hotel, but still
1. I ADORE her writing. It's so beautiful and detailed and it makes it so easy to walk with them in Manderley and understand where everything is. Also, great character development!
I just finished chapter 13: is it becoming a murder mystery? Ben remembers when Rebecca told him not to tell anyone that she sailed that day. And who is this mysterious visitor/intruder, Mr. Favell, who knows very well Mrs. Danvers and called Mr. Winter ‘Max'. What are they hiding? Why did he came so often. Also, he gives me the creeps . There is something also about the body found 2 months later, which could still apparently be recognized. The scent of the flowers, the heaviness of the atmosphere in the house... Also, we can tell that a breakdown is about to happen in Maxim... So much tension contained.... I wish the main character didn't have to feel so stressed out all the time. She feels so free and liberated when she is on her own in nature. She just wants a simple life, where she doesn't have to entertain people and is not always ‘measured' to such high standards. She is sweet and kind, I hope later when they travel again it's going to really be better.
I finished it! Omg I finished it! What was even this last 10%!
It felt like new crucial things were happening on every single page on the last 3-4 chapters that I had to be so careful to not read what was on the other page. Well, sometimes I would look to give myself some tiny spoilers, and I would get even more intrigued to see how things would unfold. Omg this story! 5 stars, soooo easily. Except for the middle that was a little bit slow, I didn't dislike a single page of this book. I mean, the middle was good too. I understand why it's a classic! I need to go to sleep and rest on it and write more tomorrow. Wow!
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-20
I picked this book at the library because its blue cover fitted my Spring Challenge. I didn't know she was the poet who read at Biden's presidential inauguration. The poems are all about Covid, the suffering, the separation. To me, it goes overboard, maybe because it hasn't be as bad as it has been for this author. Read 1/3 and dnf. No interest in reading about something that is still happening.
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-16
Finished tome 1. Omg it was so romantic! And the illustrations! But the part at the boys' dorm was not as interested, that's why 4.5 instead of 5.
Chapter 1-2: The illustrations are gorgeous ! So, it's about a family of vampires in the 19th century in England. We follow the lives of Marybelle, of pure beauty and delicate complexion, and her brother Edgar, with his dark and cold blue eyes, very protective of her. They have both been adopted by their parents, immortal as well. They grow roses in the village of Poe. The first main characters falls in love with Marybelle, grows old and probably dies, and then we switch to another man character, who accidentally shot Marybelle, mistaken to be a deer. She heals and Edgar draws energy from the main character to restore Maybelle's energy. So far, very interesting! Beautiful writing, stunning illustrations.
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-13
I listened to most of this audiobook a night I couldn't sleep. Excellent narrator. About this person on the train who sleeps and doesn't understand why he should be woken up for his ticket to be verified, and the escalation from there. It's only a few minutes long, I need to get back to it.
From: In the Ravine and other Stories by Anton Chekhov, Read by Keneth Branagh, Naxos edition
Started and reviewed: 2022-05-09
Read and reviewed: May 7, 2022
Wow, just finished chapter 1. As soon as I started reading it, I could not put it down. Her writing is so pleasant, and the scenes and characters so tangible. I knew of her famous book, Interpreter of Maladies, but I'm happy I started with The Namesake instead.
Finished chapter 2. I have a feeling this is only the beginning of bad news...
I am halfway through it and I recommend it! I just cannot wait to have time this evening to make more progress! It is well written, I completely root for the characters and I want to know what happens later in their lives
So, my final thoughts: Lahiri published the Interpreter of Maladies (collection of short stories) before The Namesake, but The Namesake is still technically her first novel, and I am quite impressed by its quality! It is so immersive and I couldn't wait to have time in my day to go back to it. The ending was not as good, a little bit too stretched out, and at that point I just wanted the story to end and start a new book. It could have been just a few pages shorter on the last chapter. I like that her mom decides to sell the house, and to live half of the year in India, and half of the year in the US. It makes sense. Same with the relationship between Gogol and Moushumi, which was simply not a good match. I was so sad when Gogol and Max broke up! They were a good fit and they were so happy together. But it's true that he was quite dependent on her family, that it was not balanced. And I understand how she felt rejected when he refused for her to join him during his dad's funeral in Calcutta, even for moral support. But at the same time, he was not good that she pushed Gogol to ““move on”” and go skiing to feel better, instead of asking him what he needed at that time. It was complicated... In the end, I enjoyed following their lives, and the book came to a natural end, which was satisfying. No happy ending was fine with me. I will add more Lahiri books on my TBR, she is a good writer! 3.5
Read and reviewed: May 6, 2022
I read 18% of the book so far, just started the chapter Thursday, 11:30 AM. I really like it so far.
I like his reflection on how people feel that they exist when they are together, and when they recognize each other with delight when they agree with each other.
I feel very close to the way he feels about objects, how he feels a connection to them, beyond unanimated items. I am not sure how it translates to English (I read it in French, my native language), but it feels very synergetic. He uses very unusual verbs and adjectives to describe actions and feelings and space. It's very poetic.
“When you live alone, you no longer know what it's like to tell a story: what is plausible disappears at the same time as friends” (my own translation). I like that he explores this idea that we make sense of the world by describing in our head or to others what our lives are made of. That without conversing, time starts to stretch and melt and the distinction between fantasy of thoughts and what ‘really' happens starts to be hard to distinguish.
The same way when he talks about recognizing one's own face by being used to seeing people looking at you, and growing the habit of looking at yourself in the mirror, somehow, possibly, as a consequence.
And I agree with him, 3pm is a weird time, too late to start something new, and too far from the delight of the evening
Also, to me, Nausea = Anxiety, and probably Social Anxiety. This Nausea that starts to accumulate in him and makes him behave in impulse, when he drastically changes his life and leave everything behind, until he is completely exhausted and bewildered by what life has made out of him. There is this feeling that life happens outside of him, that he is transported, directed, guided by the things of life, but that he doesn't have a very strong way to direct and define it.
20% Friday, 3pm Omg the idea of reading every single book in the library, alphabetically!! At first, I thought he was reading a book per author, but no, it seems that he is reading them all! This Self-Taught Man intrigues me. I remember I had the same desire when I was little, but my library was little as well. A few years ago, I read 300+ children's books exclusively for a few months, and I would pick one book per letter of the alphabet, read them, review them, and then go back to the library and start over. I had such a good time
It's interesting, how the Self-Taught Man feels like he needs to have read every single book to have an opinion. How much is enough to have an educated opinion?
Also, I am not sure how I feel about the Self-Taught Man's eyes full of enthusiasm when he recognizes a city that he read in a book. That he feels that he can only start to travel, only to make his knowledge more accurate, in his own words, after 6 more years of reading. I understand that it's not right or wrong, but somehow i feel a sadness... Maybe I'm surprised by the way he fulfills his curiosity.
33%, just before Sunday I really like the idea that for an adventure to exist, it needs to have an ending. And this ending is like a magnet that attracts each sentence and each fact to the end of the story, and gives it meaning. I really love to think about this pull to the conclusion of the adventure, and how it influences the interpretation of each detail of the story. A walk in a dark alley is not just a walk in a dark alley. Because it was chosen to become part of the story, it carries the significance of the story.
Also, Sartre is very good at describing what France is like on Sunday, when all the shops are closed, and people eat lunch with their in-laws, wear their best clothes, digest all afternoon, and walk all afternoon, just to walk, to be seen and to see, until the lights start to decline. This French habit to spend the day watching people pass by
44% this part where he goes from one café to another and listens to people being bored and tired was quite dull...
53% It's getting hard to keep reading
This book is really about the anguish/anxiety of living. The way he described a panic attack on the day the fog was so thick was quite accurate!
58% Monday Did I just read that (disturbing)he decided to stop writing the biography and then had a fantasy of being raped to feel that he exists, inspired by an actual story from the newspaper?! I'm shocked. And yes, on Tuesday, nothing. Existed.
73% “Things are never just themselves.” He sees everything in the world as this mass of goo that overflows from everything, and a root is never just a root, the color red never just the color red.
I'm not sure how they translated it in English, “the existence is contingency. It is not a goal, it is just there”
“The existence is everywhere, infinite, in surplus, always and everywhere. The existence doesn't have memory, it exists and then it no longer does””.
That's some pessimism: “All that exists is born without reason, prolongs itself by weakness, and dies from an encounter.”
So I finished the book yesterday and I would give it 3 stars. I enjoyed the first 20% but then most of the book was so slow and annoying I had to force myself to keep reading. The last quarter was more ‘active' after he had his revelation and he meets again with Anny. I had no idea what existentialism was, and now I understand it as the angst of existing. All that anxiety, dread, spinning thoughts, desire to not exist was well captured in the book. It's really hard to write a review on this one: on one hand, the book captures the idea of existentialism, and is a success; on the other end, it was a pain to read and could have been shortened by half without loosing the core ideas of feelings associated with the main character.
Also, omg this book was clearly written by an old white dude in the 40's. There are so many mentions of penises and balls! And this hallucination that nature will overgrow the city and giant penises will sprout from the Earth and birds will attack them and make them bleed. I mean. Why, Sartre? Whyyyyy?
A thought I had yesterday. When he has his revelation in the park, he doesn't understand why so many copies of trees would need to exist, but at the same time he finds comfort in the idea that Anny and him think the same thoughts... even if they are actually quite different.
Also, let's talk about Anny she is so rude and mean to him, but he seems to like that
In the end, Antoine, The Self-Taught Man and Anny are all isolated in their own loneliness, surviving the day, one after another.
Also, I forgot to say but Antoine was soooo full of himself! He is so condescending and paternalist with pretty much every body around him, thinking that people are merely living their lives, when HE truly understands the absolute unimportance of existing. At one point, he even wants to jump and reveal to them “the truth”, like to free them from their ignorance. This kind of self-righteous people annoy me so much
