this is another installment of project long classics, in which i make big old books seem more approachable by making horwelcome to...NATIVE(MBER) SON!
this is another installment of project long classics, in which i make big old books seem more approachable by making horrible month-based puns about them and reading them in little bits over the course of a month.
i'm excited for this one. even though it only has 3 sections so i'm going to have to divvy up by page count.
DAY ONE already i'm forgetting that this was published 85 years ago. i love a classic that never feels old.
DAY TWO the level of foreshadowing here...i'm like maybe if i just read fast enough everything will be fine.
DAY THREE the feelings of fear and helplessness and rage are so vivid as to be contagious.
DAY FOUR tempting to just stop right here when bigger is happy with his new job and pretend this is where it ends! but even this is dark.
DAY FIVE i have to confess i took a weekend off from reading. i am terrified of this book. it's written so perfectly that i can feel intensely things that are never hinted at other than between the lines.
DAY SIX we have concluded book one and i couldn't be more upset and invested and stunned. i picked a bad book for this project only because every day it's rendering me speechless.
DAY SEVEN the foreshadowed thing has occurred.
DAY EIGHT it's fascinating how this book built and built tension until the crime at its center happened, and it cut the horrible weight of it rather than the typical inverse.
DAY NINE never in my whole life of reading have i ever encountered a story in which an attempt at ransom goes well.
DAY TEN feeling so relieved every time these insane lies are bought as if i don't know that things are about to get worse than ever. that's the power of reading.
DAY ELEVEN i am living in the hunted trapped fearful feeling of this book.
DAY TWELVE i'm stewing in it. that's my update.
DAY THIRTEEN still stewing.
DAY FOURTEEN this is a really brutal way to read this story. i'd be consumed by it enough if i read it all at once — a bit every day is driving me to distraction.
DAY FIFTEEN now we're on the run, so it's just a more intense version of the last 5 days.
DAY SIXTEEN it's not the most important thing right now — that would be that we're still on the run and bigger has committed another murder — but it is kind of crazy just how often newspapers used to publish.
DAY SEVENTEEN another murder. he's caught. we're onto book three.
DAY EIGHTEEN bigger is in jail and we're doing some outright theme summaries as a reminder. which is kind of helpful at this point, to be honest.
DAY NINETEEN jail visit from bigger's family, bigger's friends, the victim's family, the falsely accused, the defense, the prosecution, and a reverend. all at once.
DAY TWENTY i do not know much about inquests but i didn't think they were large gatherings of people in a morgue with a judge looking on while a coroner interrogates people.
DAY TWENTY-ONE honestly really satisfying to read bigger's communist lawyer interrogating the victim's landlord dad about redlining.
DAY TWENTY-TWO there's a kind of relief to having all of the turbulent emotions of this book laid out and explained. but i still feel the same dread.
DAY TWENTY-THREE same kind of tension-easing dialogue.
DAY TWENTY-FOUR sixty people just testified against bigger. we're back to full tension.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE this lawyer is going full atticus finch.
DAY TWENTY-SIX the hope from atticus has been stamped out again by another racist monologue. this book is emotionally destroying me.
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN well, this got me.
OVERALL it is genuinely incomprehensible that this book, occupied as it is by the questions that feel so completely of today, was written so many decades ago. i could not escape this book: i thought of it constantly, i felt it utterly, i was consumed by it. it's stunning. it should be required reading. rating: 5...more
i saw this in a bookstore and even seeing 800 pages wasn't enough to dissuade me from wanting to read iti saw this in a bookstore and even seeing 800 pages wasn't enough to dissuade me from wanting to read it...more
this is my first shirley hazzard novel after having read her collected stories, but i still came away with basically the same thought:
when hazzard is this is my first shirley hazzard novel after having read her collected stories, but i still came away with basically the same thought:
when hazzard is at her best, she's brilliantly capturing these kind of unspoken, purely human moments of everyday life. this had a lot of that. her writing is so great that you almost wish she didn't have to deal with pesky things like "characters that you feel are real" or "plots that aren't mostly made up of things being mysterious."
i recommend this book, and i thought there were moments of true greatness in it, but it was not for me an enjoyable read.
it says a lot about how well hazzard writes that i will probably reread this to check if that's on me.
bottom line: what a talent!
------------------- tbr review
there's something about old-fashioned books about sisters falling in love
(thanks to the publisher for the audiobook e-arc)...more
there's something about an author's last uncompleted novel.
there was a lot of good old-fashioned cleverness to this book, of the kind that reminds youthere's something about an author's last uncompleted novel.
there was a lot of good old-fashioned cleverness to this book, of the kind that reminds you of 9th grade english class discussions at 7:35 am that were like pulling teeth. the adam and eve motif, the slow transition from nameless characters to named and back. but then there's also weird stuff.
it's a little strange to read this story, which is about gender dysphoria and polyamory and sexuality, in 2024, when all of that is stuff we know about now. reading hemingway writing about it is almost like when your grandpa describes a character he likes in a tv show using extremely outdated language and you're like, "aw, pop pop! it's nice that you're trying but also please never say that again."
except for hundreds of pages.
bottom line: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the copy)...more
and welcome to another installment of project long classics, in which i find a classic, make a horrible pun, and welcome to...THE AUGUST OF INNOCENCE.
and welcome to another installment of project long classics, in which i find a classic, make a horrible pun, and read it over the course of a month.
i've decided all the cool girls read wharton, and i need to be a cool girl. so here we are.
CHAPTER ONE hot girls always fall in love with opera. first julia roberts in pretty woman, now this...who wants to support my fancy-box-seats-where-they-give-you-the-little-glasses gofundme.
CHAPTER TWO a hot girl who returns to society at the opera wearing too shoulder-baring of an outfit and making misplaced flippant comments...i only want to be her more and more.
CHAPTER THREE congratulations to archer (a guy) on his newly announced fiancédom. i liked my declaration better, but i guess immediately post-opera works too.
CHAPTER FOUR fun to read a book from old times in which saying "thank god i'm a new yorker" means "i'm grateful i'm from a buttoned-up society with morals and rules." can you imagine the reaction if you tried that in a crowd of manhattanites these days.
CHAPTER FIVE newland just got mad at a dinner party because women should be allowed to divorce their horrible rich noble husbands and take up with the secretary. ally!
CHAPTER SIX i regret to inform you that our guy newland has no idea what he's getting himself into with this whole marriage thing.
CHAPTER SEVEN i love a scheme.
CHAPTER EIGHT if public perception was i'd lost my looks, specifically because i was really pretty at 8...hands thrown.
CHAPTER NINE basically newland is engaged to a cute girl he likes a lot (may) and being told to be very nice to her disgraced cousin (countess olenska, the one who looked hot at the opera but also everyone thinks was prettier as a literal child). surely this will go as may intends.
CHAPTER TEN ellen olenska's mind...newland hangs out with her one time and suddenly his life is changed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN get back on ellen-changing-newland's-mind watch. he's heading to her house to tell her not to divorce her creep husband and surely that will be the result.
CHAPTER TWELVE okay so currently that is the result. but i stand by my belief that it won't stay that way!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN someone was just described as "pleasantly ugly" in this. the term ugly hot has roots.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN newland is chasing ellen up and down the state at this point. an affianced man mind you!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN i'm not not enjoying this so far. but i did completely forget i was reading it this weekend.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN archer has fled south to be reunited with may on her family vacation. it sounds so lovely it almost deluded me into thinking florida is nice.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ellen's scary count husband has come stomping into the picture and suddenly divorce is back on the menu.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN archer just kissed ellen's shoe. also her face and also they've declared their forbidden love for each other but i thought the shoe thing was more newsworthy.
CHAPTER NINETEEN we are onto book ii, presumably because the last one ended with confirmation that newland will swiftly be marrying may, which in this chapter officially happened, but again. i chose my personal most important event to update you on and it was the boot smooch by a mile.
CHAPTER TWENTY honeymoon's not even over and newland is all "may is annoying" and "she wants to change me." many such cases.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE pretty fun that may is really good at archery. i hope before this book is over newland is shot with an arrow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO maybe i'm just jealous. newland gets to spend his summer hanging out in the richest part of rhode island reading books and doing nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE aaaaand now they're having an affair.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR it's funny to hear about boston as if it's some kind of slop pile where only people who dress like sh*t hang out. you can spend $20 on a pastry there these days.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE to be fair i guess they didn't even kiss each other's hands, let alone shoes. but it still is giving affair to me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX at one point in this chapter may gives archer a glance we are expected to believe contains 218 (i counted) unspoken words. my kind of delusion.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN archer is thinking of any excuse to get to DC to visit ellen and suddenly grandma has a stroke and here she comes. why couldn't he think of that!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT even may is onto something at this point.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE in case you might miss how good this line is, it's written in all caps: "EACH TIME YOU HAPPEN TO ME ALL OVER AGAIN."
CHAPTER THIRTY thinking about may dying and feeling genuine joy...oh newland i pray on your downfall.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE and now it comes out that may secretly hates ellen and is trying to both hide it and get over it. that is girlhood.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO ellen is taking her sorry ass back to europe. i'll take this victory for may, but i'd like our two remaining chapters to detail the L newland is about to face.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE another win for may: my girl is pregnant and she told ellen first. she has an unknowing villain's mind for vengeance and i love that about her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR of course may died of old age or something at like 50 years old, perfectly freeing newland to go on a father-son vacay to ellen's new hometown of paris. i thought, oh i can't have nothin...but actually i can have a nice little ending.
OVERALL this was a dramatic and soapy bemoaning of etiquette / romanticizing of Times of Yore. it didn't go where i expected it to, which was both fun and frustrating. my first but not my last! wharton, that is. probably my last book about being in love a disgraced near-divorcée countess cousin through marriage. rating: 3.5...more
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