Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Germinal by Émile Zola

6 reviews

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Zola’s Germinal is not a novel that I would normally pick up on my own accord, especially because I’m not particularly interested in the subject matter (though, I guess the average reader probably won’t be that invested in mining in France during the 1800s). When it comes to personal enjoyment, I would say that the novel fell in the middle ground, and I didn’t love or hate it. I think what really won me over, though, was Zola’s socio-political commentary, especially if you take into consideration who and what he may have been engaging with during the period he worked on this novel.

Directly inspired by the miners’ strikes that occurred in the 1860s, Zola crafted a fictional version of a miners’ strike in Northern France to dig deep into class struggle, particularly the exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie. There were other ideas that he considered as well, with I think the most surprising being the role of women in these spaces. I will say that the treatment of women in this novel was anything but great (to put it lightly), but I did appreciate Zola’s consideration of how women contributed to the labor movement. The living conditions that Zola described in Germinal were unbelievably bleak, but, in many ways, it did give him the chance to create powerful (even if, at times, heavy-handed) symbols reflecting on struggle and survival, particularly through his characters, notably Étienne and Catherine. On the note of his characters, I appreciated that Zola didn’t follow the good vs. evil model and, instead, chose to place them in murkier spaces.

Again, based on personal enjoyment alone, I would say that I don’t have any strong opinions and found the novel to be just okay. However, I have to fully acknowledge the richness of Zola’s symbolism, graphic details, and commentary in Germinal. I do think it’s worth picking this up, should you be able to handle the overwhelming bleakness, as it is a great exploration of class struggle while also giving a glimpse into how people such as Zola may have been reacting to Marxism. I was also a little surprised by his prose, which I found a bit different from his contemporaries. Relatedly, I thought it was more accessible to a modern reader who might be intimidated by nineteenth-century French literature, should that mean anything. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

adelekittey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

bookwormcat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shieldbearer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this because it was on Suzanne Collins' list of favorite books and I can absolutely see why. I can think of several scenes in the Hunger Games that this book likely influenced.  This book is, above all else, a cautionary tale: any leftist revolution must beware two pitfalls; the first being the desire to replace and not eradicate the masters, the second being infighting. 

In many ways, this book reminds me of the best of Stephen King. Zola is not interested in sanitizing characters. He is interested in telling the story of humans- messy, imperfect, often terrible, often selfless, humanity. Violence is not just the impact of force upon flesh and bone, it is the deprivation and exploitation of human beings. Germinal is the story of how abject, desperate poverty can influence a person.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

browngirlreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was an incredible read. I was taken aback at how good this book was despite not being so attached to the characters. The writing is just phenomenal. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

elodiepoline404's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Dementia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail