I have… so many thoughts about this book. It was so beautifully written, but I’m left with questions. These are, in no particular order:
- Why are the deaths so glamorized?
- Why is Patricia Lockwood Not an Indigenous scientist?
- Why does it take until the last 10 pages, in a 540 page book, for an Indigenous character to show up? and follow up, why is this Indigenous character unnamed (as if they don’t have any sort of personhood), and why do they exist solely to help one of the white characters?
- Why are the queer characters so tragic and don’t find love in the ways the straight characters do?
- Why tf did this win the Pulitzer lol

I’d love to talk to someone about this. I’m floored. 

this book sucked lol. really romanticizes the suffering of winter while only talking about people who can afford to live it comfortably. no mention of indigenous people in the first 30 pages. i’m out!

This was so fricking beautiful. Gorgeous world building, fully fledged characters, space travel, beautiful illustrations… everything you could ever want. 

This was so beautiful to read. It's so clear how much Anne was born in the heart of Lucy Maud. It was also so lovely to read about how she grew up and moved through her life, considering she was a woman in a time that it was not that easy to be a woman, especially one with career goals. Of course, she was incredibly privileged in many ways, which can't go unsaid. The sprinkles of Canadian patriotism were a little much, and also some of the naivety-driven comments about people of colour were pretty cringey.

All that being said, I really enjoyed the parts where she talks about her experiences writing and dreaming up Anne, of her time living in Halifax and working on the newspaper, and also her childhood and how her experiences growing up fed the stories she later dreamed of. I feel like a lot of Lucy Maud's experiences were pulled from in the writing of Anne with an E which was really cool to see. It seems like the writers really blended fact and fiction in the liberties they took when re-writing Anne's story, in ways that would very much compliment Lucy Maud if she lived today. 

Very very very sweet. A nice companion to The Alpine Path. 

Honestly the best part of this was Patti Smith's introduction. I liked this, but not as much as I enjoyed How I Became a Nun, because this time, I was extremely and painfully aware of the male gaze and perspective, which I had a hard time looking past. That being said, the narrative was a lot more cohesive in the Divorce, and I had an easier time following (despite reading it in bursts over a period of months). I would also like to re-read this in a single sitting, as I think his books are meant to be read.