Kelly’s review of The Awakening > Likes and Comments
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Hell yes.
I read your review, definitely pushed me over the edge to putting this on my list.
I read this for school, but have been wanting to re-read it, too. It's one of those books that I appreciated more and more as I ruminated/digested it.
REVIEW CONTINUED:
Do you see what I mean by how straightforward it is? Naïve, even? It’ s so earnest it is almost cloying to read at times. And yet it’s so crystal clear and honestly stated that I have absolutely no desire to roll my eyes. It’s extraordinary, even, for a woman of her time and situation to express it in such a still-relatable and recognizable way. Chopin thought this through admirably. I respond to it in the same way that I respond to Tolstoy’s writing, head-in-his-hands and tearing out his hair because he honestly can’t solve the problem he has, so he’s just presenting his thought process on it as best he can.
“It moved her to dreams,” may become one of those phrases that haunts me.)
I didn’t quite understand why she needed to meet the end that she did. I suppose I do, in the abstract, but I didn’t think we had been building towards a train in this one. I thought that we had been building towards Great Mop, towards a house in Italy, a faded artist’s garret, a husband denying reality for as long as possible. I didn’t think her heroine was out of options. Whether her lover left her or not, even she seemed to realize what she was doing was not entirely about him.
The only explanation that Chopin offers is somewhat mystical, bound up with the myths and spirituality of women that we were to see revived in the ‘60s (perhaps another reason that explains this book’s discovery during that time period):
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
The only real peace I could make with the end was to think of it like the Enchanted April. A house in Italy, with swirling voices all silenced, after a struggle of passions, in your head. It is the escape hatch that is always offered when the pressure is too much. While I didn’t see the need to press the button to jettison in this particular book, perhaps that is also part of the point. You never know when the pressure building is too much for the woman in particular, and, in most cases, it is not considered by those around her. “Abysses of solitude…” sometimes it seems like one can never get enough of it. It is hard to judge those who overindulge, in the end.
This was a beautiful piece of work, that for all its plain, simple style, really snuck up on me and made itself memorable. It isn’t long- I recommend giving it a shot and seeing if it will do the same for you.
Kelly, just a brilliant review - and one that has given me a new insight on an entire class of books (and characters) most of which, I have to be honest, I struggle to really understand and empathize with - and feel terribly guilty and like a bad feminist for it.
Couple of comments:
1) I find it interesting that you chose Mrs. Dalloway as illustrative, and not To The Lighthouse.
2) one of the most remarkable things for me about Villette's ending is not so much the marriage as the fact that what's-his-face [I'm sorry, I am SO BAD with character names] gave Lucy [except the ones I love beyond measure] the means to earn her own livelihood. This, to me, was the revolutionary, freeing, ultimately hopeful bit: 500₤ and a room of her own, right?
3) I didn’t quite understand why she needed to meet the end that she did. Neither did I! Until I read your review, (view spoiler)
Thank you SO MUCH for writing this beautiful, thought-provoking review.
This is the best review I've ever read of this, Kelly. Thank you.
You absolutely should not feel like a "bad feminist" for failing to understand a certain kind of historic type of woman. It is hard to reach back across time and space sometimes, under any circumstances, "feminist" or not. I especially don't think you should feel bad since you are clearly still trying to understand and are open to hearing more perspectives on them. That's admirable, actually.
To respond to your comments:
1) That is an interesting point. I've read both, but all I can tell you is that Mrs. Dalloway is the one that came to my mind, without question. I think perhaps because To The Lighthouse offers a bit less... I suppose restless questioning, than Mrs. Dalloway does, of the housewife role. I think Mrs. Dalloway takes on the framework of the role itself as a subject, whereas Lighthouse is slightly more about the personality of Mrs. Ramsay and the family at large. Mrs. Dalloway keeps a slightly more fixed focus on her daily, domestic struggles than does Lighthouse which seems to have a slightly more... spiritual cast than I felt was suitable for this particular "everyday eccentric" rebellion set of ladies I was talking about. If that makes sense.
2) M. Paul. I agree with you that that is the strong implication of the ending, covered over with the balm of "love" to offer the sop to the convention that a woman can't be truly happy or fulfilled without a man showing that he wants her, without his love or fulfillment.
3) Thanks and yes- I think that it has a lot to do with just the feeling of the moment, that is- (view spoiler)
Thanks for your substantive comment! I really enjoy talking about these books with people who care about them like you do!
Cross-post, but thank you, Aubrey. This was really a worthwhile read, for sure. A lot going on for such a short novella.
Fantastic review. I do need to finally read this. I enjoyed the comparisons with other books and characters very much. Great approach.
Thanks! Like I say- it's worth the read. Shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours and I think you'll get something out of it.
Thank you! This one stuck with me for longer than I thought it would.
![s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1735525095p1/6431467.jpg)
Fantastic. I forgot how good this was, but you crack it open and extract the gold from within and give it the poetic service it deserves in order to share it with us all. Wonderful. Simply wonderful.
Thanks, Penk! I see that you gave it a lower star count than I did. Was that for enjoyment's sake or? I know some people find that there's not much to it.
It is slight, in itself, in some ways but I think that that is deceptive. There are definitely some radical statements in here for the time, they are just said in such quiet, I don't know... Nice ways that it is can be hard to see them, plus we've moved on from some of the insights here.
But still I think it deserves such credit for its seemingly organic honesty of experience and its fidelity to the small feelings that push forward change and rebellion.
Kelly wrote: "Thanks, Penk! I see that you gave it a lower star count than I did. Was that for enjoyment's sake or? I know some people find that there's not much to it.
It is slight, in itself, in some ways but..."
I really need to reread this one, my experience was high school senior year when I didn't want to like anything not written by Flannery O'Connor or Faulkner. But you really reminded me of a lot about it that really does shine.
Well thanks. And yeah I totally remember that worshipful time in high school- I was into Fitzgerald and the Brontes and Shakespeare and didn't want to hear about Hemingway or Faulkner. I'm slowly getting over the Hemingway thing (at least partially!) but still have yet to get over the Faulkner thing. What damage our poor obsessive high school reading selves can do! And poor readings in class sometimes. I remember a dismal read of To The Lighthouse that almost put me off Woolf, even, if you can believe it. Wasn't my teacher's fault, but yeah... Studying things through "lenses" can be dreary work.
Ignoring those comments above, I just wanted to say that this is a wonderful review about a group of books that I really love, thank you!
Thank you, Ruby. I appreciate you taking the time to say that. Although the book itself didn't always captivate me, it left me with a lot to think about, so I don't regret reading it.
Destiny Nicole, you should know that I flagged your comment for (somewhat ironically, given the way you started commenting on this thread, reprimanding someone else for their language) for abuse. And I believe our interaction is now at an end.
I am not sure why she would engage with this sort of behavior. So this will be my third request for you to cease commenting. Nothing more to be gained here except another flagging. Thank you, please move along.
All right, flagged and blocked. That's enough of that.
Full disclosure: I only picked up this book to read back in my teens because Kate Chopin and I share a birthday (and, shamefully, I had so much trouble reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which was also written by an author born on the same day, that I was relieved to find a much slimmer volume in The Awakening.) I, too, distinctly recall enjoying the book till (view spoiler), which I felt was a total head-scratcher. In retrospect, I agree that it made sense for a certain type of woman in a certain period of time; as a teenager, though, I was just bewildered. (view spoiler)
In other news, I no longer get your review updates in my Goodreads e-mail, just a display of the books you've added since the last missive. That makes me sad, and I hope Goodreads changes that format soon, because I want to read all your reviews but am disappointed when I click on a book and it's just something you've added to a shelf. Stupid Goodreads leading me on like that :P.
See, Anna makes more sense to me, which probably says bad things about me. But we've had this fight before so I shall leave that particular argument alone! :)
Goodreads notifications are odd. I don't get notified if someone comments on a review, as I have understood it, from the main page of goodreads rather than clicking through to comment on the actual review. I sometimes get notified of profile comments and sometimes not. I will sometimes not get notified of the first comment on my review, but will be notified of the second one. It kinda depends on the mood GR is in.
And yeah, sorry, too much of my stuff is books added rather than reviews these days! I wish there were more! Thanks for the nice compliment of being interested.
Thanks, Reilly! I appreciate the comment. The atmosphere of this book lingered for me as well. I wish I had read it when I was younger, I think it would have been even more powerful.
Also, I appreciate the Willa Cather recommendation. I've had her recommended to me a few times- I don't know what's keeping me away from her. The rec of "A Lost Lady" is interesting- most people point me towards My Antonia. I hadn't heard of that one before. Thanks!
Very nice review. I think its interesting that you thought the prose was simple; I didn't find it overblown, by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it was lush and beautiful, not unlike the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Its straightforwardness was almost an afterthought to the power and magic of the metaphors and descriptions. Admittedly, the last novel I read before this was The Sun Also Rises, but I've been reading poetry in between, so I wouldn't think the contrast would make such a huge difference.
Yeah, after Hemingway I would imagine a lot of things would seem pretty Baroque. I will admit that there are some vaguely mystical turns here, and it does get a bit less straightforward towards the end as she gets closer to her end. But for the most part, I don't recall this being particularly strong on descriptive or atmospheric touches- especially not by comparison to any of the other novels I name here that came before or after.
What poetry did you read?
Mostly modern stuff: Learning Human: Selected Poems by Les Murray, Frieda Hughes' Waxworks: Poems, and David St. John's The Auroras: New Poems were all in that period around reading The Sun Also Rises. The last collection is probably the most heavy on description, but still nowhere near poetry of, say, the Romantics or work by someone like Mark Doty.
Outstanding review!
Thanks! This was more than worth reading, even though it's not my favorite of the type.
Fantastic review. I read this book many years ago and just re-read it. So glad I did. I remembered being particularly impressed with it, but I had forgotten how good it is. One of my very favorites.
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Apr 13, 2009 03:37PM
Hell yes.
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I read your review, definitely pushed me over the edge to putting this on my list.
I read this for school, but have been wanting to re-read it, too. It's one of those books that I appreciated more and more as I ruminated/digested it.
REVIEW CONTINUED: Do you see what I mean by how straightforward it is? Naïve, even? It’ s so earnest it is almost cloying to read at times. And yet it’s so crystal clear and honestly stated that I have absolutely no desire to roll my eyes. It’s extraordinary, even, for a woman of her time and situation to express it in such a still-relatable and recognizable way. Chopin thought this through admirably. I respond to it in the same way that I respond to Tolstoy’s writing, head-in-his-hands and tearing out his hair because he honestly can’t solve the problem he has, so he’s just presenting his thought process on it as best he can.
“It moved her to dreams,” may become one of those phrases that haunts me.)
I didn’t quite understand why she needed to meet the end that she did. I suppose I do, in the abstract, but I didn’t think we had been building towards a train in this one. I thought that we had been building towards Great Mop, towards a house in Italy, a faded artist’s garret, a husband denying reality for as long as possible. I didn’t think her heroine was out of options. Whether her lover left her or not, even she seemed to realize what she was doing was not entirely about him.
The only explanation that Chopin offers is somewhat mystical, bound up with the myths and spirituality of women that we were to see revived in the ‘60s (perhaps another reason that explains this book’s discovery during that time period):
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
The only real peace I could make with the end was to think of it like the Enchanted April. A house in Italy, with swirling voices all silenced, after a struggle of passions, in your head. It is the escape hatch that is always offered when the pressure is too much. While I didn’t see the need to press the button to jettison in this particular book, perhaps that is also part of the point. You never know when the pressure building is too much for the woman in particular, and, in most cases, it is not considered by those around her. “Abysses of solitude…” sometimes it seems like one can never get enough of it. It is hard to judge those who overindulge, in the end.
This was a beautiful piece of work, that for all its plain, simple style, really snuck up on me and made itself memorable. It isn’t long- I recommend giving it a shot and seeing if it will do the same for you.
Kelly, just a brilliant review - and one that has given me a new insight on an entire class of books (and characters) most of which, I have to be honest, I struggle to really understand and empathize with - and feel terribly guilty and like a bad feminist for it.Couple of comments:
1) I find it interesting that you chose Mrs. Dalloway as illustrative, and not To The Lighthouse.
2) one of the most remarkable things for me about Villette's ending is not so much the marriage as the fact that what's-his-face [I'm sorry, I am SO BAD with character names] gave Lucy [except the ones I love beyond measure] the means to earn her own livelihood. This, to me, was the revolutionary, freeing, ultimately hopeful bit: 500₤ and a room of her own, right?
3) I didn’t quite understand why she needed to meet the end that she did. Neither did I! Until I read your review, (view spoiler)
Thank you SO MUCH for writing this beautiful, thought-provoking review.
This is the best review I've ever read of this, Kelly. Thank you.
You absolutely should not feel like a "bad feminist" for failing to understand a certain kind of historic type of woman. It is hard to reach back across time and space sometimes, under any circumstances, "feminist" or not. I especially don't think you should feel bad since you are clearly still trying to understand and are open to hearing more perspectives on them. That's admirable, actually.To respond to your comments:
1) That is an interesting point. I've read both, but all I can tell you is that Mrs. Dalloway is the one that came to my mind, without question. I think perhaps because To The Lighthouse offers a bit less... I suppose restless questioning, than Mrs. Dalloway does, of the housewife role. I think Mrs. Dalloway takes on the framework of the role itself as a subject, whereas Lighthouse is slightly more about the personality of Mrs. Ramsay and the family at large. Mrs. Dalloway keeps a slightly more fixed focus on her daily, domestic struggles than does Lighthouse which seems to have a slightly more... spiritual cast than I felt was suitable for this particular "everyday eccentric" rebellion set of ladies I was talking about. If that makes sense.
2) M. Paul. I agree with you that that is the strong implication of the ending, covered over with the balm of "love" to offer the sop to the convention that a woman can't be truly happy or fulfilled without a man showing that he wants her, without his love or fulfillment.
3) Thanks and yes- I think that it has a lot to do with just the feeling of the moment, that is- (view spoiler)
Thanks for your substantive comment! I really enjoy talking about these books with people who care about them like you do!
Cross-post, but thank you, Aubrey. This was really a worthwhile read, for sure. A lot going on for such a short novella.
Fantastic review. I do need to finally read this. I enjoyed the comparisons with other books and characters very much. Great approach.
Thanks! Like I say- it's worth the read. Shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours and I think you'll get something out of it.
Thank you! This one stuck with me for longer than I thought it would.
Fantastic. I forgot how good this was, but you crack it open and extract the gold from within and give it the poetic service it deserves in order to share it with us all. Wonderful. Simply wonderful.
Thanks, Penk! I see that you gave it a lower star count than I did. Was that for enjoyment's sake or? I know some people find that there's not much to it.It is slight, in itself, in some ways but I think that that is deceptive. There are definitely some radical statements in here for the time, they are just said in such quiet, I don't know... Nice ways that it is can be hard to see them, plus we've moved on from some of the insights here.
But still I think it deserves such credit for its seemingly organic honesty of experience and its fidelity to the small feelings that push forward change and rebellion.
Kelly wrote: "Thanks, Penk! I see that you gave it a lower star count than I did. Was that for enjoyment's sake or? I know some people find that there's not much to it.It is slight, in itself, in some ways but..."
I really need to reread this one, my experience was high school senior year when I didn't want to like anything not written by Flannery O'Connor or Faulkner. But you really reminded me of a lot about it that really does shine.
Well thanks. And yeah I totally remember that worshipful time in high school- I was into Fitzgerald and the Brontes and Shakespeare and didn't want to hear about Hemingway or Faulkner. I'm slowly getting over the Hemingway thing (at least partially!) but still have yet to get over the Faulkner thing. What damage our poor obsessive high school reading selves can do! And poor readings in class sometimes. I remember a dismal read of To The Lighthouse that almost put me off Woolf, even, if you can believe it. Wasn't my teacher's fault, but yeah... Studying things through "lenses" can be dreary work.
Ignoring those comments above, I just wanted to say that this is a wonderful review about a group of books that I really love, thank you!
Thank you, Ruby. I appreciate you taking the time to say that. Although the book itself didn't always captivate me, it left me with a lot to think about, so I don't regret reading it.Destiny Nicole, you should know that I flagged your comment for (somewhat ironically, given the way you started commenting on this thread, reprimanding someone else for their language) for abuse. And I believe our interaction is now at an end.
I am not sure why she would engage with this sort of behavior. So this will be my third request for you to cease commenting. Nothing more to be gained here except another flagging. Thank you, please move along.
All right, flagged and blocked. That's enough of that.
Full disclosure: I only picked up this book to read back in my teens because Kate Chopin and I share a birthday (and, shamefully, I had so much trouble reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which was also written by an author born on the same day, that I was relieved to find a much slimmer volume in The Awakening.) I, too, distinctly recall enjoying the book till (view spoiler), which I felt was a total head-scratcher. In retrospect, I agree that it made sense for a certain type of woman in a certain period of time; as a teenager, though, I was just bewildered. (view spoiler) In other news, I no longer get your review updates in my Goodreads e-mail, just a display of the books you've added since the last missive. That makes me sad, and I hope Goodreads changes that format soon, because I want to read all your reviews but am disappointed when I click on a book and it's just something you've added to a shelf. Stupid Goodreads leading me on like that :P.
See, Anna makes more sense to me, which probably says bad things about me. But we've had this fight before so I shall leave that particular argument alone! :)Goodreads notifications are odd. I don't get notified if someone comments on a review, as I have understood it, from the main page of goodreads rather than clicking through to comment on the actual review. I sometimes get notified of profile comments and sometimes not. I will sometimes not get notified of the first comment on my review, but will be notified of the second one. It kinda depends on the mood GR is in.
And yeah, sorry, too much of my stuff is books added rather than reviews these days! I wish there were more! Thanks for the nice compliment of being interested.
Thanks, Reilly! I appreciate the comment. The atmosphere of this book lingered for me as well. I wish I had read it when I was younger, I think it would have been even more powerful.Also, I appreciate the Willa Cather recommendation. I've had her recommended to me a few times- I don't know what's keeping me away from her. The rec of "A Lost Lady" is interesting- most people point me towards My Antonia. I hadn't heard of that one before. Thanks!
Very nice review. I think its interesting that you thought the prose was simple; I didn't find it overblown, by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it was lush and beautiful, not unlike the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Its straightforwardness was almost an afterthought to the power and magic of the metaphors and descriptions. Admittedly, the last novel I read before this was The Sun Also Rises, but I've been reading poetry in between, so I wouldn't think the contrast would make such a huge difference.
Yeah, after Hemingway I would imagine a lot of things would seem pretty Baroque. I will admit that there are some vaguely mystical turns here, and it does get a bit less straightforward towards the end as she gets closer to her end. But for the most part, I don't recall this being particularly strong on descriptive or atmospheric touches- especially not by comparison to any of the other novels I name here that came before or after.What poetry did you read?
Mostly modern stuff: Learning Human: Selected Poems by Les Murray, Frieda Hughes' Waxworks: Poems, and David St. John's The Auroras: New Poems were all in that period around reading The Sun Also Rises. The last collection is probably the most heavy on description, but still nowhere near poetry of, say, the Romantics or work by someone like Mark Doty.
Outstanding review!
Thanks! This was more than worth reading, even though it's not my favorite of the type.
Fantastic review. I read this book many years ago and just re-read it. So glad I did. I remembered being particularly impressed with it, but I had forgotten how good it is. One of my very favorites.
