That was certainly a journey. Definitely a mixed bag. The Golden Notebook is quite a philosophical novel, and the fictional narrative structured around different notebooks is interesting. I had to keep reminding myself that the book was published in 1962...when things were decidedly different. At one point, I became so angry with the main character because she kept falling in love with married men. Awful men. And then I realized that she is getting older, and most men are married (and not divorced) in the '50s. I mean, I guess that explains it? The time setting really made most impact on the long and winding passages about Anna and the communist party in England. It's quite outdated and irrelevant. If I could have excised all of the CP parts and kept the rest, I think it would have made a better impact on me. I just fell into these lulls of not caring. And Anna Wulf isn't the best protagonist...I don't necessarily have to like a character, but she really made me angry a lot. The book's relevance today is, I suppose, in the way some things are universal, and other things--due to the era--can change for the better.