Sunday, April 12, 2009

Finished The Awakening

I mentioned on MoonRat's post that I had finished my first book on the list, Kate Chopin's The Awakening. My nutshell review: I like the whole find-yourself-and-live-your-own-life thing, but I found the heroine inconsiderate and self-absorbed. Three of five stars.

If you want to see the full review, check out Corrodentia Weekly or GoodReads.

5 comments:

moonrat said...

She's not super likable, it's true, but I love the book anyway. (So does the rally monkey--he loves it and finds it both empowering and sad.)

Amanda said...

I don't feel Edna's unlikeable. I connected to her strongly the first time I read this book. She's depressed, she feels cornered, and she's desparate. I can see why others wouldn't like her, though. It's still one of my all-time favorites.

Jen A said...

Amanda, I actually really enjoyed reading your comments on my blog. It's nice to get a different perspective. I really like my book club for that reason - I can go into a book club meeting feeling one way about a book and walk out feeling a little differently because people see and understand sides of the story that don't make sense to me initially.

Amanda said...

Jen, I feel the exact same way! It's especially good to have a book club, I think, when you didn't like or understand the book much.

Matthew Heuett said...

I never thought Edna was unlikeable, either. She feels trapped by the one role her society has laid out as acceptable for women (i.e. becoming a mother-woman), and she does her best to escape from that and live on her own terms. And for the most part she actually succeeds in breaking those chains . . . well, all except one, which leads to the novella's ending.

This 100 novel project intrigues me. I think I might just join up.