angelcatherinechen's review
5.0
4.7/5
Death, loss, love, class, society and mother daughter relationship; Simone De Beauvoir writes with an honest elegance that conveys incredibly profound feelings with regard to these topics— which we should all each do better to think deeply about.
This has been a wonderful start to my meditation on death; a project I want to lean heavily into in the next several months.
Also highly recommend to anyone working or spending time with those who are near death, whether in medicine or otherwise.
Death, loss, love, class, society and mother daughter relationship; Simone De Beauvoir writes with an honest elegance that conveys incredibly profound feelings with regard to these topics— which we should all each do better to think deeply about.
This has been a wonderful start to my meditation on death; a project I want to lean heavily into in the next several months.
Also highly recommend to anyone working or spending time with those who are near death, whether in medicine or otherwise.
emmaby's review against another edition
4.0
“nothing on earth could possibly justify these moments of pointless torment”
objectively 5 stars
objectively 5 stars
cepbreed's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
" Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consolation for death.”
A complete 180 from the current pattern of books I've been reading and a worthwhile beginning to a new year of reading. I will be honest, I started this because it is short and I thought I'd be able to finish it before the end of December in order to add another book to my 2022 stats. I continued reading even after 2022 passed because my interest was genuinely captured. Anyone that knows me knows I was hospitalized and near death for two months. That entire period of my life is filled with shame and pain, and to see the outside perspective of a loved one is so different. My mother sat at my bedside while I was dying and continued to support me in recovering from the worst of my chronic illness. Simone de Beauvoir's experience is similar, but also near opposite. She cares for her mother while also being helpless to prevent the inevitable end to her life. I need to do more reading like this to gain wider perspective, I guess this book helped me affirm my place in this world more.
(I took the easy road reading the translation when I should’ve read it in French to fend off forgetting my 6.5 years of language education…)
Song: Class Of 2013 - Mitski
(I took the easy road reading the translation when I should’ve read it in French to fend off forgetting my 6.5 years of language education…)
Song: Class Of 2013 - Mitski
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Cancer, Death, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Chronic illness
hwarolls's review
3.0
a beautiful and detailed recounting of a mother’s illness and her eventual death. is prolonging one’s life despite the suffering they would go through really the right way? it was a sorrowful yet comforting read, simone de beauvoir is truly an amazing writer.