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annoying17's review against another edition
5.0
Unbelievably gorgeous book whose surface I barely scratched. I know I will return to this book 100 times and feel the same way each and every one. His writing style is absolutely perfect for the medium and outdoes all my attempts at matching its feel. Deeply excited for The Surrealist Manifesto next.
marjoriehuang's review against another edition
I finished the book a couple of days ago but I kept on forgetting to update. The second half of the book was as confusing as the first. What I can discern from what I read was that this guy meets Nadja on the street and finally starts talking to her. Then he starts meeting her more regularly. This girl is strange and says a lot of memorable things. But then the guy realizes that the girl is mentally unstable and is actually making stuff up, and the more he learns about the girls actual life the less he likes her. He stops seeing her, she gets institutionalized. He ruminates some more. The book ends
cassmpt's review against another edition
4.25
Je me souviens tres exactement que j'avais beaucoup aimé ce livre et qu'il m'avait beaucoup touché car on voit une narration externe à Nadja donc on peut voir l'inquiétude que sa condition peut declencher
exlibrisalex's review against another edition
2.0
Inane drivel by a self-obsessed and unspectacular man. Breton was certainly one of those persons who talks a lot and yet says nothing. The few flimsy "philosophies" he does manage to (poorly) articulate are anything but brilliant or profound. I think he tries to dress them up with surrealist psycho-babble. Breton comes off as one who leads an unproductive, pointless life but due to his delusional sense of self-importance he has to believe that even the most mundane things are pregnant with deep and sometimes sinister meanings, which only he can even begin to sense and interpret (I notice this with a lot of male surrealist authors i.e. Georges Bataille.)
Nadja (the character - whether you believe she is real or not) is really just a vehicle for Breton to ramble pseudo-intellectually for pages at a time. Its never really about Nadja. Its about how Nadja makes him feel about himself or how Nadja's indecipherable comments or bizarre behavior somehow tangentially allows him to further develop and expand upon whatever theory he wants to blab about in the book. Nadja acts so bizarrely that he is able to interpret her behavior in whichever way suits him best while ignoring the reality of her (that she isn't some unusual genius but a mentally unstable woman). This book reads as if Breton had a desire to publish something but had nothing to say or had no idea how to structure it, so he added some crazy lady into the middle part. A crazy lady whose destructive behaviors he enabled in the name of art. Nadja was just a briefly lasting, half-assed experiment for Breton's narrator - easily abandoned when the results were proving to be disappointing and offering a few final half-hearted apologies (excuses) for the poorly handled affair.
Nadja (the character - whether you believe she is real or not) is really just a vehicle for Breton to ramble pseudo-intellectually for pages at a time. Its never really about Nadja. Its about how Nadja makes him feel about himself or how Nadja's indecipherable comments or bizarre behavior somehow tangentially allows him to further develop and expand upon whatever theory he wants to blab about in the book. Nadja acts so bizarrely that he is able to interpret her behavior in whichever way suits him best while ignoring the reality of her (that she isn't some unusual genius but a mentally unstable woman). This book reads as if Breton had a desire to publish something but had nothing to say or had no idea how to structure it, so he added some crazy lady into the middle part. A crazy lady whose destructive behaviors he enabled in the name of art. Nadja was just a briefly lasting, half-assed experiment for Breton's narrator - easily abandoned when the results were proving to be disappointing and offering a few final half-hearted apologies (excuses) for the poorly handled affair.
joshsimp's review against another edition
mysterious
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? Yes
1.5
The first novel by the father of Surrealism encapsulates some of the worst parts of the movement, mainly, it's obsession with the 'femme enfant' (the Surrealist's precursor to the manic pixie dream girl).
In the novel, a married Breton (or the fictionalised version of him) starts what is essentially a love affair with a woman about 10 years his junior. He tells his wife that Nadja is falling in love with him, and tells the reader that he is not in love with Nadja, which doesn't stop him sleeping with her. He holds her childlike naivety (youth), and unusual way of thinking about the world (mental illness) as the surrealist ideal. He then essentially ghosts her until she is institutionalised, and refuses to visit her due to, get this, his disregard on principle for the psychiatric profession. This may be a line he's selling himself because he can't handle his guilt, but there is little pointing to that other than natural human generosity from the reader.
Of course this is fictionalised, and enhanced for dramatic effect, but it is also rooted in real events and a telling portrait of Breton's mind.
Nadja offers up all the problems present in the Surrealist movement, with little of the joy or beauty that come along with them. Parts of the treatise on art are interesting, but not as interesting or profound as they think they are. In fact, the whole book could be described as not or interesting or profound as it thinks it is - self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and rambling in the worst way. Breton, here, will do anything but self-reflect.
In the novel, a married Breton (or the fictionalised version of him) starts what is essentially a love affair with a woman about 10 years his junior. He tells his wife that Nadja is falling in love with him, and tells the reader that he is not in love with Nadja, which doesn't stop him sleeping with her. He holds her childlike naivety (youth), and unusual way of thinking about the world (mental illness) as the surrealist ideal. He then essentially ghosts her until she is institutionalised, and refuses to visit her due to, get this, his disregard on principle for the psychiatric profession. This may be a line he's selling himself because he can't handle his guilt, but there is little pointing to that other than natural human generosity from the reader.
Of course this is fictionalised, and enhanced for dramatic effect, but it is also rooted in real events and a telling portrait of Breton's mind.
Nadja offers up all the problems present in the Surrealist movement, with little of the joy or beauty that come along with them. Parts of the treatise on art are interesting, but not as interesting or profound as they think they are. In fact, the whole book could be described as not or interesting or profound as it thinks it is - self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and rambling in the worst way. Breton, here, will do anything but self-reflect.
blueyorkie's review against another edition
5.0
It's one of those books you either love or hate. Nadja, without a doubt, is one of them. This hybrid text on the borders of autobiography, essay, and novel, embellished with photos, drawings, and literary references, is majestic and overwhelming. Breton does not seek to please. He shudders and disturbs. It propels its reader into the surrealist movement at the gates of madness. Who was Nadja? Elusive and indecipherable, Nadja seems to be the embodiment of surrealism. It seems so unreal that one would think it came from Breton's imagination. Yet Nadja was. But the real and eternal question is elsewhere. Who am I?
The last part is a magnificent plea against the deprivation of liberty and the fledgling psychiatric medicine at a time when entering a "specialized" hospital meant never leaving it again. Praise of madness, rejection of decency, and the right to be different. Gorgeous and timeless.
The last part is a magnificent plea against the deprivation of liberty and the fledgling psychiatric medicine at a time when entering a "specialized" hospital meant never leaving it again. Praise of madness, rejection of decency, and the right to be different. Gorgeous and timeless.
sslalgi's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
_enoughalready's review against another edition
mysterious
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
3.0