lory_enterenchanted's Reviews (582)

France revealed a wild and dangerous side, in the days when it was mapless and only partially civilized, that I had never encountered before! Really interesting explorations.

The first half was rather exceptional, well written and insightful in exploring the emotional trajectory of a girl displaced and in mourning after WWII. This included tensions with her older sister and the difficulty of moving in with an aunt in an abusive marriage. The second half -- in which the "secret" comes to light -- I found less compelling. As soon as the story just became about killing off scary external monsters it lost its appeal for me.

The later Moomin books have much more mature themes and command of language and imagery as well. This is an odd little fable in which Moominpappa pulls everyone along in his dream of living on an island and taking care of all of them (without regard for whether they actually want this). There are challenges, there is growth. There are mysterious transformations and a bit of magic. I especially love what happened with the Groke, and with Moominmamma's garden. 

 This was better than The Sea Fairies in terms of having a plot, but the unpleasant people of both sides of Sky Island were not much fun to be with. 

I found this first Moomin novel to be a somewhat weird combination of whimsy and horror ...  Helpful to read for the origins of some characters and relationships, but I think Jansson settled more into her stride with later books. 

What can I say about Madame Bovary? I read it in French this summer to redeem myself for not having read it in French class years ago (I got impatient and read the translation). I am glad I did, even though I think I still missed a lot and could use another go-around to feel I've really taken it in in the original language. 

I can see why it is a great novel -- innovative in literary technique for the time, full of powerful imagery, masterful at indirect expression -- but I can't say I enjoyed it. 

Emma is a morally empty person, not because she has affairs and desires something more from life, but because she takes no responsibility for the suffering she causes others. Her treatment of her child as an object -- to be used as a prop when it suits her, ignored when not, or even hated --  is reprehensible. The incident in which she pushes her husband to operate on a boy with a club foot out of ambition, and then blames Charles entirely for the disastrous outcome, adding to her disgust for him, was truly verging on evil. Charles is a fool, but Emma is inhuman. 

Flaubert's realistic treatment of her decline and fall is tremendously detailed, and yet we never understand why she is this way, what in her background caused her to develop so. "It was fate," Charles says at the end, but surely there is more to it than that. Some more psychological insight would have been welcome.

A pessimistic view of a spiritually impoverished world, of characters without hearts, except for Charles, who ends up actually dying of a broken heart at the end. 

Maybe it's because I didn't have my own copy as a child, so have no fond memories, but I'm underwhelmed by this Oz installment, which mostly takes place outside of Oz (or in a part of Oz that might as well be somewhere else). The second half in Jinxland is like something from a bad operetta; apparently it was drawn from the film "His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz."

I wanted to read this after The Scarecrow of Oz, to see how Trot and Cap'n Bill are introduced. This really very lackluster Baum, there is no tension as the characters are assured nothing can hurt them when protected by fairy power. The first part is just a tour of some uninteresting underwater folk (opportunity for bad puns), and the second part after they are captured by an evil villain is still not very exciting or challenging. 

It did make me wonder why in "Scarecrow" Trot did not use the magic ring she was given by the mermaid queen to ask for help, either when sucked down by the whirlpool or when stuck in the cave. Of course, that would have spoiled the rest of the story.

An ill-assorted group of guests who want to visit the absent Moomins become an unlikely community, before disbanding again. I am liking the later books better, which became less random and whimsical and are really quite profound in their philosophy, while still retaining their charm. Quite a feat.

I think this is my favorite of the Moomin books so far. I love Moomintroll's journey of self-discovery. Starts out as a post-apocalyptic nightmare but turns into a regenerative vision of hope. Just what we need these days!