Lark Benobi's Reviews > The Women
The Women
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I have a beautiful big paper arc written by a writer whom I've never read before, but I know she is a NYT bestselling author, and that her books are deeply loved.
I open the book.
The first sentence is: The walled and gated MacGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private.
And I think: Gosh, isn't this a slightly uninspired way to begin a book, I mean, couldn't she have tried a little harder than to call something "a world unto itself," which was probably a little on the clichéd side even before the first time anyone wrote it down?
Ok, moving on, the next two sentences are: On this twilit evening, the Tudor-style home's mullioned windows glowed jewel-like amid the lush, landscaped grounds. Palm fronds swayed overhead... and okay okay that's enough, because my brain is saying: "On this twilit evening?" "windows glowed?"..."Palm fronds swayed?"
I'm just talking about my own experience, here.
Speaking solely from my own point of view, this writing makes me feel bored and irritable at the same time. It feels so bland. It's as if someone is slapping me with wet cardboard. It's not exactly hurting me but I want to get away from it.
But: Should I care so much about the prose style? Because, maybe it's a good story.
But I do care. I want to read a story that is written with care.
So, most people would keep reading for several more pages at least, even if they felt the same way about these first sentences--I mean, can you really tell anything at all from two or three sentences?--but for me I'm already thinking that, if this is how a book begins--if the beginning is, indeed, the place where a writer must capture my attention--then I'm done.
And this is normally where I would put a book down.
But this time, because I've heard so much about this writer's books, I open a few pages at random, just to see if I can find just one sentence to fall in love with, anywhere, or some phrase, at least, that catches my eye.
And I read:
Frankie felt a heaviness in her heart, a sorrow that she knew would stay with her...
Jamie was there instantly, holding her steady. She reached for his hand, held it, not daring to look at him...
She looked up in surprise...
He shrugged, as unable to find the words as he'd been to process the grief...
He looked at her a long moment...
That's all I have to say about this book, except to add that clearly I am way, way an outlier on why I read, which is at least 90% for the sound of the language, for the jolt of reading a sentence that is both describing something completely familiar to my human experience and at the same time is said in a completely new and revelatory way, and whenever I begin a book that does not do these things, both of them simultaneously, I think of all the books waiting to be read, and I move on.
I open the book.
The first sentence is: The walled and gated MacGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private.
And I think: Gosh, isn't this a slightly uninspired way to begin a book, I mean, couldn't she have tried a little harder than to call something "a world unto itself," which was probably a little on the clichéd side even before the first time anyone wrote it down?
Ok, moving on, the next two sentences are: On this twilit evening, the Tudor-style home's mullioned windows glowed jewel-like amid the lush, landscaped grounds. Palm fronds swayed overhead... and okay okay that's enough, because my brain is saying: "On this twilit evening?" "windows glowed?"..."Palm fronds swayed?"
I'm just talking about my own experience, here.
Speaking solely from my own point of view, this writing makes me feel bored and irritable at the same time. It feels so bland. It's as if someone is slapping me with wet cardboard. It's not exactly hurting me but I want to get away from it.
But: Should I care so much about the prose style? Because, maybe it's a good story.
But I do care. I want to read a story that is written with care.
So, most people would keep reading for several more pages at least, even if they felt the same way about these first sentences--I mean, can you really tell anything at all from two or three sentences?--but for me I'm already thinking that, if this is how a book begins--if the beginning is, indeed, the place where a writer must capture my attention--then I'm done.
And this is normally where I would put a book down.
But this time, because I've heard so much about this writer's books, I open a few pages at random, just to see if I can find just one sentence to fall in love with, anywhere, or some phrase, at least, that catches my eye.
And I read:
Frankie felt a heaviness in her heart, a sorrow that she knew would stay with her...
Jamie was there instantly, holding her steady. She reached for his hand, held it, not daring to look at him...
She looked up in surprise...
He shrugged, as unable to find the words as he'd been to process the grief...
He looked at her a long moment...
That's all I have to say about this book, except to add that clearly I am way, way an outlier on why I read, which is at least 90% for the sound of the language, for the jolt of reading a sentence that is both describing something completely familiar to my human experience and at the same time is said in a completely new and revelatory way, and whenever I begin a book that does not do these things, both of them simultaneously, I think of all the books waiting to be read, and I move on.
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 103 (103 new)
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David
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Oct 04, 2023 02:03PM
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David, given your recent review of Mobility and what bothered you about it I'm fairly certain you'd not appreciate this book as much as others do.
Kim, I've come to believe that it's not just a certain reading preference that causes people to have different opinions about books. I think we actually read differently from one another. That the act of reading is different for different people, and that we're reading at different, frequently incompatible registers of diction, and that we're using different parts of our brains as our eyes scan the pages...and that's why we disagree. Maybe reading appreciation is a "blind men and the elephant" kind of thing. This is my explanation for why some of my goodreads friends can swoon over this novel and I get hung up by the third sentence. Our brains are reading different books.
Such an interesting observation! Yes, you need to trust your instincts when you write a metaphor, it needs no propping up.
Cynthia wrote: "I also often crave the exact thing you described in your last paragraph..."
For me it's gotten to be a necessity, in the books I read, that something about the language itself surprises and delights me. Maybe I feel that way because of all the books in my bookcase that I haven't read yet, that I know will give me this feeling exactly! For the last several years I've subscribed to small presses, where such writing lives, and I'm way behind.
I'm really interested by IC's comment above. I don't like "bestseller" TV either but with art I'm not remotely highbrow. I have friends who are very responsive to art but not to fiction, so I think we all have our little areas we can't compromise on. My mother thinks I'm a dreadful snob about books, and I believe she thinks I do it on purpose, to be pretentious.
yes, I read a lot of schlocky stuff so I'm not sure always what keeps me engaged, and what not. Sometimes I go on a Harlequin Romance binge. Well, I"m still thinking a lot about this book and my experience with it. Maybe it was a case that I had different expectations from what I got and it's just that simple.
One thing I love about Goodreads is the way we get to see the views of so many careful readers on any given book, people we get to know over the years, and for me at least it gives me a framework where I begin to understand my own preferences (and also, my blind spots).
Sometimes books that others think are literary masterpieces also give me this "what the heck?" feeling so it's not really a quality judgment that I'm talking about at all. Sometimes the prose-brain barrier is impermeable. Sometimes the messages zing right through from the page to my inner soul. I'm still trying to figure it out.
I agree that we each bring our own experiences into a book and that we read things differently but that allows us to talk and learn from other perspectives without judging. That is key. I loved your comments, Lark.
This can definitely happen to me! But it tends to happen with something that is truly genre, like Lois McMaster Bujold's space operas or Louise Penny's cozy mysteries. When it's a book that is "general fiction" I tend to demand more from it, somehow.
I have such a range of reasons I give a book 5 stars here on goodreads but if I were to narrow it down to recommendations of books that
1) I think would appeal to people who love The Women, and yet,
2) also have an element that was missing for me, in The Women, of what I'd call a literary awareness, with care given to the writing itself, and
3) are also what i would call 'feel-good' stories, that end in hope and not despair, and
4) are about relatable people you want to root for, and
5) are a pleasure to read, in that they get the job done without imposing a lot of taxing poetic challenges, or complex literary storytelling techniques...
Here are some recommendations that come to mind:
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
The Member Of The Wedding by Carson McCullers
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Book of Harlan by Bernice McFadden
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Past by Tessa Hadley
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Wow this is a very weird list! Anyway, they all do something that elevated them for me, even though for the most part they tell their stories in straightforward prose, about ordinary people.
I find that Kristin can be a bit saccharine at times, but for me, she is an easy read. And I did enjoy this novel.
I find that Kristin can be a bit saccharine at times, but for me, she is an easy read. And I did enjoy this novel."
Thanks, Sally. I love sappy movies about teen love or dance competitions but for some reason I can't give myself a break when reading. My value system changes drastically from medium to medium.
Isn't it strange (it's strange to me, anyway) how some big readers have no problem with phone-it-in writing, if the story is interesting enough? For me if the writing isn't trying to say something precisely in words, then I'd rather watch the movie.
I have such a range of reasons I give..."
What a great response & list! Will be especially useful in my ongoing quest to find books my sister & I can enjoy together :-)
as a AuDHD reader, i have an abundance of attention, but trouble with memory and keeping characters straight. which is why i love short story collections. i will struggle over my neuro-hurdles for a long read if i am rewarded by the writing and plotting; "Birnam Wood" was a worthy cause. i had little interest in "The Women" before reading your review, and now have none at all. thank you again.
Becky, you don’t need to respect my opinion! I’m fascinated by how many people have no problem with how this book was written. But to answer your question: exactly. The go-to word would be “swayed” but I expect more from a book than the obvious word because in fact palm fronds don’t sway. Some kinds of palms are so stiff they don’t move much. Others move chaotically in the wind where the branches/fronds are all doing different motions, never in unison like the word ‘sway’ implies. But as I’ve said a few times now so many readers read differently from me and aren’t bothered by this lack of precision.
Thanks for sharing this insight. Im autistic and I sometimes think of my reading differences as a ‘disability.’ It does mean that some books that a lot of people enjoy are inaccessible to me. There is so little written about these reading differences in neurodivergent people, beyond dyslexia, which is not something I have.