francesmthompson's Reviews (976)

Soooo I know the word "war" is in the title, but I didn't expect the tone of this book to be so... well, angry, and almost violent in places.

I'd read so many articles and blog posts referencing this book that I already knew its basic premise (i.e. we are all born to do something creative but we are also born with a resistance internally that makes us procrastinate or ignore our creative desires completely and so the war of art is the ongoing battle overcoming The Resistance) but I still thought it would have lots of value for me because it is so highly recommended by people in the public sphere that I respect and admire.

It did have some value. I like how it identifies modern society and consumer-culture as a root of Resistance and it reaffirmed my belief that I need to write to be the best version of myself... but it also toyed with ideas that I'm not comfortable accepting. Firstly, there was a lot of talk of the Muse, and also God being part of our creative purpose. While I don't have the same lengthy experience of professional writing as Mr Pressfield, my 5 years of writing regularly and publishing my work continues to make me feel that there is no such thing as the Muse. We are all masters of our own destiny and we have to choose to work in order to do the work. The more we put in the easier it can be (but not always!) and Pressfield goes some way to agree with this ("we get what we put in"). But to say any or all of this comes from a Godly or mythical presence doesn't help encourage people to sit down and do the work, which is where I believe Resistance really and truly exists. It's also hard to understand his view that we should do the work regardless of the outcome when he goes to great pains to highlight his commercial successes as some sort of validation... I therefore found it a bit contradictory.

Furthermore, it's not a book to read if you have any experience of mental health struggles as it briefly and quite bluntly suggests that depression and anxiety wouldn't exist if we all did more art. I have always believed creativity helps soothe such illnesses and our souls on a bad day, but it's frankly insulting to suggest we would be free of it if we all indulged a creative habit for a few hours a day... something only very privileged people (like myself) are physically, logisticaly or financially able to do.

I fear I'm getting almost as ranty as the author now so I will stop by saying you should read this book if you are very new to writing or any other art, but take the tone and message with a pinch of salt... or like me, be selective of what serves you, because frankly finding things to encourage us on this ever unpredictable journey is truly necessary to beat the Resistance I cannot deny we encounter every day.

I can't help feeling the author wrote this while suffering acute insomnia himself. The plot points didn't really add up, I had minimal empathy for most of the characters and while the premise was so good (it's why I downloaded the book) it just didn't deliver or even delve into the topic half as much as I hoped. Maybe I'm just too green to this genre and others would enjoy it greatly, but for me, it just left me feeling a little weary and disoriented... so yes, like I'd had many a bad night's sleep too.

So unexpectedly good. There are very few books I've read this year that I wanted to start all over again once I was finished but this was one of them. Beryl Bainbridge really proves herself as a wide-reaching author with this.

Oh how I loved The Miniaturist (the author's first novel) and how I felt like this one didn't match it in many ways, albeit still a solidly put together book. It's hard to explain how this story didn't quite match up but it just seemed to drift more... and not always in the way that it gently keeps you afloat when there is no land in sight...

Essential reading for ALL writers. The introduction and opening chapter carried some much weight I wish I could imprint it on the inside of my eyelids.

A weird, worrying and wonderful collection of stories by an author I've come to really trust will show me something a bit different every now and again.

It felt a little eerily relevant to be reading this in our current climate when there is so much going on behind closed doors, and so little being factually, reliably reported, or read. This is a must-read for anyone with any knowledge or interestin the Watergate affair, but if it's all new to you, start with the author's original book All The President's Men, or failing that the film, and then finish with this kind portrait of a man who risked so much for what he saw as his duty to his country. The final half of the book was especially unexpected as it explored his life many years after he was arguably the most famous anonymous source on the planet.

Whizzed through this hungrily and dished out loads of points for having a sexually alive middle-aged woman as the protagonist and for keeping me hooked with flashbacks, twists and turns and a multi-layered cake of a plot. All that said, I felt it could have gone deeper into many of the events and issues it discussed - rape, affairs, love, mental health - and I believe Doughty to be a novelist capable of exactly that. I also found myself asking many questions at the end that stayed unanswered, and not in a good way...

Spoiler

Why didn't the husband ask her more questions about her affair? Why didn't she see the twist coming as it did seem a bit obvious and she as a scientist should have needed a bit more evidence before coming to certain conclusions? And why did the jury come to the conclusion it did when she effectively admitted part of the crime?

Perhaps these are questions for a book club, and in fairness they haven't kept me awake at night. I just wonder if this book could have gone so much further in so many different ways to add a little substance to the suspense.

Oh, okay. There's a reason half of the book didn't make sense. It's also a big fat twist. Even though I don't feel like it works 100% it was worth reading on to... Also I still sobbed my heart out.