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faintgirl's review against another edition
3.0
I got really excited seeing this was the next book-list book, but then after the first chapter realised I'd though it was another John Fowles, and of course it's not. Though John Fowles did think it was the novel of the year in 1984, according to the cover, so all was not lost.
I can't say I enjoyed most of this. The doctor at the centre of the novel is trying to rationalise the loss of his wife through the works and life of Gustav Flaubert. Now, I've not read any Flaubert (I know, I know, but it's on the list, so I will!), so it perhaps wasn't the closest subject to my heart. I was on track for a 2 star read, but there's a couple of really quite extraordinary chapters towards the end, that form I book I might have got on with a little better. When the writer drops the Flaubert and either turns inward, or finds a funny story about parrots, it pulled me in much more.
Still... I was glad it's a short one!
I can't say I enjoyed most of this. The doctor at the centre of the novel is trying to rationalise the loss of his wife through the works and life of Gustav Flaubert. Now, I've not read any Flaubert (I know, I know, but it's on the list, so I will!), so it perhaps wasn't the closest subject to my heart. I was on track for a 2 star read, but there's a couple of really quite extraordinary chapters towards the end, that form I book I might have got on with a little better. When the writer drops the Flaubert and either turns inward, or finds a funny story about parrots, it pulled me in much more.
Still... I was glad it's a short one!
camicarreno's review against another edition
4.0
El loro de Flaubert es el punto de partida para que el doctor, Geoffrey Braithwaite –viudo, retirado y fan del escritor– hable sobre la biografía del autor, nos cuente algo de su vida y reflexione sobre la crítica literaria. Me gusta mucho cómo escribe Barnes.
Algunas de las frases que me gustaron:
«The unwritten books? They aren't a cause for resentment. There are too many books already.»
«Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.»
«You cannot change humanity, you can only know it.»
«Truths about writing can be framed before you’ve published a word; truths about life can be framed only when it’s too late to make any difference.»
Algunas de las frases que me gustaron:
«The unwritten books? They aren't a cause for resentment. There are too many books already.»
«Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.»
«You cannot change humanity, you can only know it.»
«Truths about writing can be framed before you’ve published a word; truths about life can be framed only when it’s too late to make any difference.»
dyno8426's review against another edition
5.0
This book is about the life and influence of Gustave Flaubert, the reputed, modernist and realist author, creator of Madame Bovary and other works. Madame Bovary is the only thing that I have read of his (as of writing this) and I remember that despite my literary immaturity, it struck me as a rebellious work on the life of a domestic adulteress. While I had only the faintest recollections of it, I remember feeling the defiant and unapologetic breaking of conventions that Madame Bovary represented, even if Emma Bovary finds herself armored by the main defense of escaping the mundaneness of life - which is flimsy and ridiculous for conventional senses. That is when I felt that it felt "modern", liberating, empowering and reconstructive. The shockwave which the publishing of this work caused became historical in its being banned and then acquitted in the court. This was the work which established Flaubert and his modernist approach to life. This book by Julian Barnes refreshed Madame Bovary for me by referencing it several times from the perspective of Flaubert and how it materialized itself from the his life. And of course, it has many of his famous and less known books referenced, but naturally, I related with the one I read. And it is not just a literary analysis of his work and evolution as an author - it has much more to it. In fact, so beautifully much and replete it is with profound gems picked and polished from the mundane riverbed of existence and human condition that I found myself highlighting with every turning page. Regretfully, I could not share those highlights here.
What captivated and hooked me, consistently as a thematic and ironic reference in this brilliant work by Julian Barnes, is an opinion on the popular debate of whether we should separate the appreciation/criticism of an artwork from the artist - in that, through the voice of another fictional author in this fiction George Braithwaite, Julian Barnes seems to be echoing my sentiments on this debate that we should keep them separate. It is said that art imitates life. So, when we are evaluating the quality, influence and worthiness of any artwork, for example a literary work like Madame Bovary, are we considering what kind of artist a person has been or the kind of life they have led in understanding the artwork. The first instinctive and most significant argument in my opinion is that an insight into the author's life gives context to the artwork. It can explain what motivated the author/creator/artist to create any particular work. If only we can get an insight into the mind/emotions/psyche/state of life of the artist in that precise moment of space and time, we may better empathize and form a connection with the artwork which is placed for our observation - a connection that is not just cognitive or intellectual but stronger due to being emotional. However, no matter how superficial the contrary-argument may sound because it has been repeated in so many galleries and museums, art should not need any explanation. In my experience, "good" art captures that pattern of existence and human condition which is rendered in the form of artwork. For its goodness to manifest, there should be an uncorrupted, unbiased, cognitive/emotional connection which is unconditional of the creator/artist. The artist's skill and "goodness" not only exists in identifying this intrinsic, universally recognizable aspect of life that may exist as simply before everybody in the space and time they inhabit, but also in executing and rendering it with a beauty on whatever medium (through fiction, painting, music, etc.) that captures the cognition, appeals to cognition and the purity of ideas resonates with similar emotions in the observer. Artist's job may as well end when they lay the last stroke on the canvas, when they put the last period in their manuscript. Julian Barnes advocates the same freedom to not see Emma Bovary's adultery and Gustave Flaubert's romantic promiscuity as an explanation of each other. Of course, the artist's life shaped their ideas and their ideas their life in a never-ending cycle. However, the beauty of artwork is its universality with which it can capture anyone any number of times without asking who made that. Barnes literally acts as a lawyer for Flaubert and tries to keep him resting in peace by shielding his grave from critical vultures by defending the popular criticisms against his work and his life through all clever, witty and effective ways of literary genius. Naturally, this is all hilarious. But Barnes tremors your heart with a light fictional story of the supposed fictional author who is following the footsteps and preserved legacy of Flaubert through the places where he lived most of his significant moments. It is enjoyably informative on Flaubert, his literary contributions and how he shaped authors following him. It is sentimental in showing the vulnerabilities underneath the cynical, tough and cool looking Flaubert. And finally, you have the parrot - our fictional protagonist author keeps searching through the streets of Rouen (Flaubert's home-ground) the taxidermic parrot which Flaubert used for writing one his most famous fictional parrots. He finds himself confused by multiple versions of these parrots which every possessor claims to be the true one. Don't you see how it's such an amusing, tender metaphor on how an artist's life gets fabricated, manipulated and multiplied in interpretation, especially after their death, as an mirror image of the multi-existence of an artwork's meaning, except in only one thing - the real artwork is always available in its single, physical form; the artist's life on the other hand exists only in people's imaginations, theories and apocrypha in its multi-versional form that which will probably never be reconciled.
What captivated and hooked me, consistently as a thematic and ironic reference in this brilliant work by Julian Barnes, is an opinion on the popular debate of whether we should separate the appreciation/criticism of an artwork from the artist - in that, through the voice of another fictional author in this fiction George Braithwaite, Julian Barnes seems to be echoing my sentiments on this debate that we should keep them separate. It is said that art imitates life. So, when we are evaluating the quality, influence and worthiness of any artwork, for example a literary work like Madame Bovary, are we considering what kind of artist a person has been or the kind of life they have led in understanding the artwork. The first instinctive and most significant argument in my opinion is that an insight into the author's life gives context to the artwork. It can explain what motivated the author/creator/artist to create any particular work. If only we can get an insight into the mind/emotions/psyche/state of life of the artist in that precise moment of space and time, we may better empathize and form a connection with the artwork which is placed for our observation - a connection that is not just cognitive or intellectual but stronger due to being emotional. However, no matter how superficial the contrary-argument may sound because it has been repeated in so many galleries and museums, art should not need any explanation. In my experience, "good" art captures that pattern of existence and human condition which is rendered in the form of artwork. For its goodness to manifest, there should be an uncorrupted, unbiased, cognitive/emotional connection which is unconditional of the creator/artist. The artist's skill and "goodness" not only exists in identifying this intrinsic, universally recognizable aspect of life that may exist as simply before everybody in the space and time they inhabit, but also in executing and rendering it with a beauty on whatever medium (through fiction, painting, music, etc.) that captures the cognition, appeals to cognition and the purity of ideas resonates with similar emotions in the observer. Artist's job may as well end when they lay the last stroke on the canvas, when they put the last period in their manuscript. Julian Barnes advocates the same freedom to not see Emma Bovary's adultery and Gustave Flaubert's romantic promiscuity as an explanation of each other. Of course, the artist's life shaped their ideas and their ideas their life in a never-ending cycle. However, the beauty of artwork is its universality with which it can capture anyone any number of times without asking who made that. Barnes literally acts as a lawyer for Flaubert and tries to keep him resting in peace by shielding his grave from critical vultures by defending the popular criticisms against his work and his life through all clever, witty and effective ways of literary genius. Naturally, this is all hilarious. But Barnes tremors your heart with a light fictional story of the supposed fictional author who is following the footsteps and preserved legacy of Flaubert through the places where he lived most of his significant moments. It is enjoyably informative on Flaubert, his literary contributions and how he shaped authors following him. It is sentimental in showing the vulnerabilities underneath the cynical, tough and cool looking Flaubert. And finally, you have the parrot - our fictional protagonist author keeps searching through the streets of Rouen (Flaubert's home-ground) the taxidermic parrot which Flaubert used for writing one his most famous fictional parrots. He finds himself confused by multiple versions of these parrots which every possessor claims to be the true one. Don't you see how it's such an amusing, tender metaphor on how an artist's life gets fabricated, manipulated and multiplied in interpretation, especially after their death, as an mirror image of the multi-existence of an artwork's meaning, except in only one thing - the real artwork is always available in its single, physical form; the artist's life on the other hand exists only in people's imaginations, theories and apocrypha in its multi-versional form that which will probably never be reconciled.
suzzeb22's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed Flaubert's Parrot and wished it were longer. I think it certainly helps to have read Madame Bovary prior to reading this. Makes you think and also laugh.
adventuresinwellbeing's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
woodpusher's review against another edition
4.0
Un texto excelente. Tomando como pretexto su investigación acerca del loro disecado que Gustave Flaubert tomó prestado del museo de Rouen y colocó en su mesa de trabajo mientras escribia Un coeur simple, Julian Barnes nos lleva por un entretenido e informativo circuito por la ruta de los mecanismos de la creación literaria. Un certero análisis acerca de las prerrogativas del autor y una perfecta introducción a la obra de Barnes.
brisingr's review against another edition
1.0
DNF @ 63% because there's only so much Flaubert info I can take in before I go mad - and I'm honestly so bored and tired. I don't care about anything going on in this book. I don't care if it's a pretext, I don't care about whatever innovation might be in it. I. just. don't. care.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
If like me you don't care about morality of stalking a dead author who wanted to stay unknown, this is a very good read. My only two problems are
1. It would have been much better as an essay. The parts that contain most of fiction are bad parts whereas most of best parts are facts about or quotes from Flaubert.
2. Flaubert should probably be given credit as co-author for book. Majory I f quotes I saved are from Flaubert rather from Barnes.
1. It would have been much better as an essay. The parts that contain most of fiction are bad parts whereas most of best parts are facts about or quotes from Flaubert.
2. Flaubert should probably be given credit as co-author for book. Majory I f quotes I saved are from Flaubert rather from Barnes.
rosedpetals's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25