bradgibbon's review
challenging
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
c_mcd's review
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
dllh's review
3.0
I did not love this book, though I feel as if I probably ought to have, as it's apparently considered (with the second and third in the trilogy it belongs to) one of the most important novels of the 20th century.
The first half I found pretty tedious, and that's presumably part of the point. I was doing the intellectual equivalent of tapping my watch to see if it was still running when the first section thankfully came to an end. The second half was initially much more palatable, but then I found Moran so odious (again, by design) that reading his story gave me very little pleasure.
The way the two halves began to engage with one another was a little enticing but ultimately didn't seem a big enough payoff to me given the amount of time and effort even my shallow slog cost me.
Here's hoping the other members of the trilogy manage to lift my estimation of this one.
The first half I found pretty tedious, and that's presumably part of the point. I was doing the intellectual equivalent of tapping my watch to see if it was still running when the first section thankfully came to an end. The second half was initially much more palatable, but then I found Moran so odious (again, by design) that reading his story gave me very little pleasure.
The way the two halves began to engage with one another was a little enticing but ultimately didn't seem a big enough payoff to me given the amount of time and effort even my shallow slog cost me.
Here's hoping the other members of the trilogy manage to lift my estimation of this one.
helenamay's review
slow-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
1.5
Like Ulysses but more boring. Fuck Molloy. All my homies hate Molloy. Note to future self: do not force chess into dissertation.
ostrava's review
4.0
Molloy is a very strange book (an understatement, I know). Stripped down as it is from any discernible plot, it seems to be built almost like a "drag". The novel "drags" the characters, and not the other way around. The actions are almost observed by Molloy and Moran, rather than performed.
I don't have much else to say about the book right now. I feel at both times indifferent and highly impressed, like watching someone chug a liter of sunflower oil without passing out. I don't know :/
I don't have much else to say about the book right now. I feel at both times indifferent and highly impressed, like watching someone chug a liter of sunflower oil without passing out. I don't know :/
yuefei's review against another edition
Two parallel journeys, their directions erratic, asymptotic. The most absurd fits of cold reason are twisted, in a stream of consciousness, with oneiricism. The is no certainty, no closure, apart from that of the unending procession ever convergent, like an asymptote, on death.
(From CSM Library. Read from a red paperback of the trilogy, which includes Molloy and The Unnameable, both of which I no longer have time to read. The first page of The Unnameable fell out many times, before I finally taped them back in.)
(From CSM Library. Read from a red paperback of the trilogy, which includes Molloy and The Unnameable, both of which I no longer have time to read. The first page of The Unnameable fell out many times, before I finally taped them back in.)
c2pizza's review
4.0
Molloy is the dream where you are running and you keep moving slower and slower until you are moving so unbearably slowly the dream becomes a horror, except in this version of the dream you are also laughing and you're unaware of why you are laughing, but it feels right in its own way, so you continue until you start running quickly, but, unprepared for the sudden acceleration, you trip and tumble through a bramble bush into a ditch, and lay there, starring at the sky in all its sunken ugliness (it being just before dawn) and you wonder, or you don't, just how it all came to this, why am I here, where am I going, or was I going here, where have I been, aren't dreams where you are running disturbingly slow a sign that something is weighing heavy on your subconscious mind?
jadejoosten's review
4.0
(eerste deel van de trilogie) ik vond dit écht zware kost, wel leuk, maar niet bepaald een ik-leuk-ff-lekker-achteroverboek. het verhaal is wel lachen