A review by librarymouse
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

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

3.0

Orlando's fully unquestioned physical and social gender transition is somehow the least absurd part of this book. Not only is she unhesitatingly referred to with the correct pronouns upon the switch by the narrator, but by her fellow characters as well. The book was fine overall, though the extended timeline across a small number of pages is deeply strange when compared to Mrs. Dalloway's one day explored in detail as the only other Woolf book I've read. I really enjoyed Orlando's juggling of attraction with the gendered expectations of personality and aesthetics, and how they differed between the traditional clothes of other countries. Orlando isn't particularly likeable but I don't know that liking her was the intention behind with a novel.n her introduction to the reader, in the first pages of the novel puts her at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to likeability.
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