Europe through literature discussion

Discussion about To the Lighthouse, this month's choice.

I finished the novel and my review today.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It is beautifully written, but difficult.

I'm about a quarter of the way in, but I must admit I'm struggling a bit with the whole stream-of-consciousness thing, and my brain is constantly searching for any kind of detail to anchor itself a little. Having attempted to read Eimear McBride's 'The Lesser Bohemians' a couple of years ago, which takes this idea to the extreme and contains no punctuation whatsoever, I began to wonder whether I was missing something and whether my intellect just wasn't up to the task. Still, although Woolf's sentences can be very long, they do at least exist, and I agree with April that they are beautifully written, so I'm hopeful of finding a few threads to latch onto.

Everyone is so insecure and ashamed of their lack of talent, education, intelligence or getting no respect. The men react by wanting to establish or get authority. The women react by going into the mode of "I'm not good enough, pretty enough, nice enough, talented enough to have any authority".

I am halfway through and I'm finding it pretty easy to read. You don't need any kind of references or anything. (The only other stream-of-consciousness I've read was a part of Ulysses and it was very confusing.) Just let yourself go. It's like a lot of people meditating out loud.

Well, 'To the Lighthouse' isn't my favourite book, but I'm definitely glad I read it. I do think that the circumstances at the time you read a book have an effect on how you perceive it, and I read this one whilst in bed with a particularly nasty case of the flu, feeling quite sorry for myself. Perhaps I'll read it again in a different place and time - a beach on the Isle of Skye, looking out at a lighthouse, maybe - and see what happens...

Here's my brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I hope you feel better now, Helen. Being sick, ugh.

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "I hope you feel better now, Helen. Being sick, ugh."

Yes, all better now, thanks.