Reviews

Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin

tmquam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

leilahmichal's review against another edition

Bit too heavy for me personally. Would love to come back to it someday :)

ralu_'s review against another edition

4.0

I chose to read the letters as they were presented in the book (so, out of order), and the effect was confusion and fragmentation - the main narrator's identity was ambiguous and some letters had no addressee or signature. This worked really well with the mix of raw emotions and snippets of memories, so I kept oscillating between being heartbroken and infuriated.

beetsnbees's review against another edition

want to come back to this later

mel_fck's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

robinks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

The afterword really helped to contextualize this novel, which made me appreciate it more. I read it cover-to-cover, though Miaojin suggests reading in any order, but I still found it very challenging to follow the emotions of the protagonist and the narrative (though I suppose that might be the point). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Animal death, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual content

siria's review against another edition

challenging dark

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

1.0

This book's achievement is also its weakness: Last Words from Montmartre really does read like a series of letters written by a messy, melodramatic woman in her early 20s who feels like every relationship drama is the end of the world. It's a lot, and my tolerance for this kind of solipsistic, sophomoric navel-gazing is low. 

I might have gotten on better with Qiu Miaojin's writing better if there had been more incisiveness to it, if her character portraits had been clearer. But none of the people mentioned here really comes to life or has a distinct voice (it's not even clear how many narrators the book actually has), and a lot of what seem to be intended as profound statements are just rather baffling. For instance, Qiu at one point writes that that the term "'[s]ecular life' assumes a kind of passive, moralistic 'loyalty.'" What this actually means isn't unpacked at all by the narrative voice, but it doesn't make any sense. How does the term do so? What did Qiu think 'secular life' meant? Because it doesn't seem to match what most people would think of the term.

I'm also really uncomfortable at how this book is marketed/discussed as offering some kind of profound insight into queer love, because the relationship(s) Qiu writes about are clearly toxic:

Spoiler

full of emotional manipulation (threats of suicide to try to make a partner stay) and physical abuse

. This probably came across differently in the mid-90s than it does today, but reading it in the 2020s just made me wince.

Plus, even with the caveat that this is a work in translation, the prose in general has nothing winning to it. Qiu succeeded in writing one of the worst and most confusing descriptions of the female orgasm I've ever read.

Spoiler

"She knew what rhythm to follow and when to enter my cunt, to brush against all those obscure curves, the creased cliffs, the canals, climbing the steep slope of arousal and suddenly planting a crimson flag there. The Virgin Mother of burgeoning flowers reproducing asexually and gushing forth in clusters from the slender internal palace..."

What.

tahinisaltsummer's review against another edition

dark sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

Heart-wrenching masterpiece. Felt almost wrong reading such a raw an intimate book

geofroggatt's review against another edition

3.0

How can you rate and review a suicide note? That’s the question I find myself asking as I try to put my feelings about this book into words. This book is an example of how the story surrounding the story is more interesting than the work itself. When the Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre. Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, the novel tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women: their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders— until the genderless character Zoë appears, and the narrator’s spiritual and physical identity is transformed. Although I was unfamiliar with Qiu Miaojin, hearing the small story of her life and death at her own hands in the preface of the novel made me more interested in her and her works. I admit that I hate how that sounds, there’s always a tragedy that comes with the popularity of an artist’s art that comes only after they’ve died, but I think the reason I resonated so much with her story was because I also struggled with suicidal ideation throughout my life, so hearing stories and seeing art that has come from people who’ve crossed that line always feels more personal and intimate to me. It sounds self-centred of me, and it is, but it makes me realize how connected we all really are without knowing it throughout our lives. While the author has said that the letters could be read in any order, I did read through them in the order they were originally presented and arranged by the publishers. I was unable to divorce the story of the protagonist from the story of the author’s real life, despite not knowing how this novel fit into the author’s world and what her intention was with it. This could be entirely fictional and not related to anything the author was feeling towards the end of her life, or it could be completely linked, I won’t ever truly know. However I do feel like this novel is significant to her real life as it was the last thing she ever worked on before she ended her life. In a way, all authors put a piece of themselves in their story, and it leaves me wondering how much (and which parts) the author left with us here. In my opinion (and many others), this last novel was effectively the author’s suicide note, but only those who knew her can glean the true meanings or hear the true message. I resonated deeply with the protagonist’s musings on heartbreak, society, and death. The last letter was bittersweet, and I appreciated how the final part of the novel gives history and context to the author, their life, and their circumstances. Readers should not expect a traditional storytelling format or even a traditional story. It feels wrong to rate this book as if it were just a piece of entertainment, as it more resembles the last written thoughts of a woman before she ended her life. I resonated deeply with a lot of the author’s musings on sexuality and love itself. I think that as tragic as the author’s life and death were, it is important to acknowledge how much she accomplished a lot in her life, becoming prolific in the underground lesbian writing scene in Taipei. While the letters from the author presents a story that delivers emotion and atmosphere, I also appreciated the pieces of real history at the beginning and ending of this novel, which gave better insights into the life of the author, who’s life and death stays at the forefront of the reader’s mind throughout the novel. It was interesting hearing how suicide has a different cultural context, and that there are many theories about the reasoning behind her decision to end her life, and many use this novel as a vehicle to speculate the author’s last thoughts and intention. This is easily one of the most intimate and heavy novels that I’ve ever read, and this is also an example of novels building a bridge between the author and the reader. I felt connected to the author throughout the entire reading experience, and it was surreal knowing she once lived, and I am now years and countries away, reading about her final thoughts before her life ended. I think this was an interesting read for those who are intrigued by the story of the author’s life and death, but I would actually recommend most readers who are looking for entertainment to read something else. This was a heavy read, and not something I could rate traditionally as a piece of storytelling. I can simply rate the reading experience and speak about what reading this book felt like. For me, it’s clear that these letters were a fictionalized version of the author’s suicide note, and that people who knew her and loved her would truly understand the depth and true nuances that are hidden to most readers. It’s hard to put into words the complex feelings that I have towards this novel, but I will say that the author put her heart to the page in this, and I hope that she found comfort in her memories of her true love in her very last moments before death.

spela_g's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0