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All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui
In the past week or so I’ve picked up three books I’d previously DNFed in the hopes that I would like them better now…turns out instead that I shouldn’t have given them a second chance and that instead, I should have just trusted my gut-instinct. Lesson learned. All Men Want to Know is an incredibly…
1970s, 1980s, 2 STARS, 20th century, Adult, algeria, algerian french author, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CHILDHOOD, cultural dissonance, female authors, FRANCE, FRENCH, growing up, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, MEMORY, My reviews, navel gazing, Nina Bouraoui, published in 2018, queer, read in 2021, reading, sapphic, SEXUALITY, style over character, stylised prose, Tous les hommes désirent naturellement savoir, TRANSLATED FICTION -
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
“She had appeared so glorious to me that I had assumed she had everything she wanted. I wanted to cry for her, and for myself.” Superbly written The Inseparables is a novella that pairs an enthralling depiction of female friendship with a razor-sharp commentary on gender and religion This is the kind of work of…
1920s, 1st pov, 4 STARS, academia, Adult, all girls school, ambiguous protagonist, beautiful prose, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, catholicism, CHILDHOOD, Christianity, CLASSICS, coming of age, existentialism, female authors, female friendships, feminism, first love, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, friendships, GENDER, growing up, introspective, jealousy, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, modern classics, My reviews, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, obsession, published in 2020, queer, queer undercurrents, read in 2021, reading, Religion, SEXUALITY, Simone de Beauvoir, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, The Inseparables, TRANSLATED FICTION, unreliable narrators, unrequited love -
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
“Oozing winter and fish, Sokcho waited. That was Sokcho, always waiting, for tourists, boats, men, spring.” I have once again a bone to pick with the person responsible for the blurb of a novel. Elisa Shua Dusapin is a Franco-Korean female author so that means she will be compared to a French author (Marguerite Duras)…
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Consent: A Memoir by Vanessa Springora
Written in spare yet unflinching prose Consent, as the title would suggest, is a memoir that examines its author’s relationship’ to a renowned French author, Gabriel Matzneff. At the time Springora was 14 and Matzneff was 50. Springora looks back to that time in her life, evoking the feelings and emotions her teenage self was…
1980s, 1st pov, 20th century, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, all of the trigger warnings, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, bad love, books about writers, child abuse, Consent, Consent: A Memoir, female authors, feminism, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, graphic content, MEMOIR, Nonfiction, Pedophelia, published in 2020, rape, read in 2021, sexual assault/abuse/rape, TRANSLATED FICTION, Vanessa Springora -
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
At Night All Blood is Black is a short yet certainly not breezy read. David Diop’s novel reads very much like the increasingly feverish confession of a man whose every-day reality is permeated by violence. He is both victim and perpetrator, cognisant of the violence that dominates his life yet somehow unwilling to truly consider…
1910s, 1st pov, 20th century, Adult, At Night All Blood is Black, Black & Black heritage authors, David Diop, DEATH, feverish, FRANCE, FRENCH, HISTORICAL FICTION, lyrical prose, male authors, morality, published in 2018, RACE, read in 2020, revenge, Senegal, Senegalese French author, stylised prose, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence, war, war related ptsd, wwi -
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Emma Bovary has become the epitome of desperate housewife, the archetypal unfaithful wife, the ultimate daydreamer whose fantasies lead to a premature self-destruction. “She wished she could stop living, or sleep all the time.” Madame Bovary follows the ‘provincial ways’ of the petite bourgeoisie. Charles Bovary is a so-so doctor, married to an older woman,…
1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, affairs, ALIENATION, bad love, beautiful prose, Charles Bovary, class, CLASSICS, daydreams, doctors, drama, Emma Bovary, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, Gustave Flaubert, illness, Madame Bovary, male authors, MARRIAGE, published in 1857, re-reads, ROMANCE, satire, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, toxic relationships, TRANSLATED FICTION -
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas — book reviews
While I understand historical context and I am quite able to appreciate classics without wanting them to reflect ‘modern’ sensibilities, I have 0 patience for books that glorify rapists. SPOILERS BELOW I don’t mind reading books about terrible people. I read Nabokov’s infamous Lolita and Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. I enjoy books by Agatha…
1 STAR, 17th century, adventure, Alexandre Dumas, big books, BOOK REVIEWS, books i hate, CLASSICS, drama, duels, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, friendships, heroes, HISTORICAL FICTION, horrible friends, male authors, MELODRAMA, men who do not seem to know how to write women, musketeers, political intrigue, problematic, published in 1844, rape, read in 2020, sexual assault/abuse/rape, story within a story, The Three Musketeers, TRANSLATED FICTION -
The Lover by Marguerite Duras — book review
The Lover strikes me as little more than an exercise in literary masturbation. This novella is overwrought, self-indulgent, and ultimately insubstantial. Fooled by the promise of its first pages, I soon found myself irked by the narrator’s linguistic burps. With the exception of two or three characters, everyone else is nameless. Alienation is de rigueur.…
1 STAR, 1920s, 20th century, age gap, ALIENATION, bad love, BOOK REVIEWS, books i hate, CLASSICS, female authors, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, Marguerite Duras, modern classics, navel gazing, Pedophelia, published in 1984, purply prose, read in 2020, ROMANCE, sex, SEXUALITY, style over character, The Lover, TRANSLATED FICTION, Vietnam -
LIE WITH ME: BOOK REVIEW
Non mentirmi (Lie with me) by Philippe Besson ★★★✰✰ 3.5 of 5 stars Initially, I was torn between reading the English and the Italian translations of « Arrête avec tes mensonges ». I settled for the Italian because —to my mind at least— it seems closer to the original French language (at least they are both…
1980s, 3.5 STARS, Arrête avec tes mensonges, autofiction, coming of age, first love, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, gay, growing up, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, Lie with me, LITERARY FICTION, m/m, male authors, MEMOIR, Non mentirmi, Philippe Besson, PUBLISHED IN 2017, READ IN 2019, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, TRANSLATED FICTION -
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
A moving novel that has a few flaws. Yes, I was – in more than one occasion – moved to tears, however, I was also aware that the story and its characters were rather clichèd. Full of ‘compassion, suffering, romance, and constant danger’, Kristin Hannah was inspired by a Resistance heroine — the 19-year-old Belgian…
luce [is reading] 