Reviews

The Rose Garden by Maeve Brennan

mattgroot1980's review

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

dany_casimiro's review

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4.0

"A view is where we are not. Where we are is never a view."
~~~~
Some authors stay with you due to their words, others due to their message. A rare few due to both. Maeve Brennan stays with you thanks to her implicit satires, to a very grounded portrayal of Irish society inside Ireland and in New York. Through several female perspectives, we travel from house to house in the Manhattan suburbs, in Dublin. Even if the spaces vary, her acute look on social aspects is recurring; eventually, it becomes the line that connects all these short stories. They are bound together by this cunning depiction of the good and the bad, among both middle and upper-class.

hayleydurelle's review

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5.0

Beautiful and sharp. Meant to be savored.

likecymbeline's review

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4.0

Wish there were a way to note which of the short stories in a collection you've read, but barring that I'll say that reading this gave me a lot of insight into how I might construct a short story myself. I used to read a lot more short stories in high school and do so very rarely now. "I See You, Bianca" has been my favourite of what I've read and I wish I could keep a little copy of that on hand just for whenever I want it.
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