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A review by librar_bee
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
1.5 stars, DNF'd at about 50%. Inaccessible and emotionless. This book reads with the pretention of a high school student who takes a semester of French and suddenly "forgets" how to explain things in English.* An enthusiastic "do not recommend" from me.
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As of p. 35...this is very badly written. Constant repetition, time skips with no explanation, inconsistent use of names, lots of GRE words with absolutely no emotion behind them. I want to learn about these women and their contributions, but this is certainly not a book that will teach me.
I would immediately DNF and turn to the bibliography if this weren't the book club book for the month. Excellent concept with terrible execution. Really a shame.
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As of p. 82...yet more repetition of phrases and historical points that wouldn't need constant rehashing if Schwartz had properly organized her story. The only redeemable parts of this book are the sentences that clearly convey basic historical fact. The fiction angle is not working here. Would also like to mention the fact that most of the story up until now revolves around Henrik Ibsen's work more than the collective works of the women protagonists.
Still absolutely no emotion behind the voice giving us countless mentions of "violets in laps" (what??). I'm genuinely shocked that this was published, and apparently edited before that.
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DNF at p. 111. Two main thoughts:
1) I am someone who loves learning about language. Linguistics and etymology can beautifully support a story. Here, the commentary on language was completely muddled and never explained. It encompasses my main issue with this book - the overall inaccessibility.
2) This book contributes nothing new to the existing discussions of feminism, lesbianism, and queerness. If anything, I disliked how the forced attempts at fluffy writing made queerness seem to be something inherently feminine and soft and magical, like there is only one way to express queerness. Androgyny and masculinity were vaguely described in a way that wrote them off as confusion, from my understanding.
The women were also described completely one-dimensionally. Sarah Bernhardt was only ever described as "divine," about 5 times, and Lina as "molten" about the same amount. These were real women who experienced real issues, and this attempt at glossing over their lives in shallow metaphors did not sit well with me.
Very glad to be putting this down.
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*If you're going to only translate half of the foreign languages you use (apparently not the literal Greek alphabet though), and use the proper Italian city names (which is fair) then call Rome "Roma," too. If you're going to write elitist, at least be consistent.
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As of p. 35...this is very badly written. Constant repetition, time skips with no explanation, inconsistent use of names, lots of GRE words with absolutely no emotion behind them. I want to learn about these women and their contributions, but this is certainly not a book that will teach me.
I would immediately DNF and turn to the bibliography if this weren't the book club book for the month. Excellent concept with terrible execution. Really a shame.
---
As of p. 82...yet more repetition of phrases and historical points that wouldn't need constant rehashing if Schwartz had properly organized her story. The only redeemable parts of this book are the sentences that clearly convey basic historical fact. The fiction angle is not working here. Would also like to mention the fact that most of the story up until now revolves around Henrik Ibsen's work more than the collective works of the women protagonists.
Still absolutely no emotion behind the voice giving us countless mentions of "violets in laps" (what??). I'm genuinely shocked that this was published, and apparently edited before that.
---
DNF at p. 111. Two main thoughts:
1) I am someone who loves learning about language. Linguistics and etymology can beautifully support a story. Here, the commentary on language was completely muddled and never explained. It encompasses my main issue with this book - the overall inaccessibility.
2) This book contributes nothing new to the existing discussions of feminism, lesbianism, and queerness. If anything, I disliked how the forced attempts at fluffy writing made queerness seem to be something inherently feminine and soft and magical, like there is only one way to express queerness. Androgyny and masculinity were vaguely described in a way that wrote them off as confusion, from my understanding.
The women were also described completely one-dimensionally. Sarah Bernhardt was only ever described as "divine," about 5 times, and Lina as "molten" about the same amount. These were real women who experienced real issues, and this attempt at glossing over their lives in shallow metaphors did not sit well with me.
Very glad to be putting this down.
---
*If you're going to only translate half of the foreign languages you use (apparently not the literal Greek alphabet though), and use the proper Italian city names (which is fair) then call Rome "Roma," too. If you're going to write elitist, at least be consistent.