Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Pages: 249
Finished: July 4, 2007
Reason for Reading: this was a previous read in the classic lit yahoo group before I joined and it sounded very interesting to me.
Rating: 3/5

First sentences:

They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks. The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother ...


Recommend: Not really. If you are a big Jane Eyre fan (like I am) and this book intrigues you, you may feel compelled to read it (like I did). I'm rather ambivalent about the book. Part One was very good, the story of Antoinette's life before she meets Rochester. The rest of the book seemed rushed and the plot was lost. After Part One, I found the characters lost appeal also and I started to not really care what happened to them. Overall, it is a short book and a quick read, and enjoyable to a point.

Comments

  1. I thought it was a quick read. I would have liked it better on it's own and not tied to Jane Eyre. JE is one of my favorites, too.

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  2. I am a huge fan of a book re-telling a familiar tale. Like with Frank Beddor's Wonderland series or Gregory Maguire's books, we learn a lot more about the characters and situation from different perspectives.

    Of course, the re-telling has to be somewhat true to the original tale...

    Do you read many re-tellings? Do you like them?

    - Chris

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Chris, Yes, I do love reading re-tellings! Mostly I've read fairytale retellings but also have Frank Beddor and Maguire's books on my tbr list. I'm also anxious to read Geraldine Brooks' March but I want to re-read Little Women first.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think you will not lose too much by not re-reading Little Women before March; come to think of it, it might be nice to read them in reverse.

    Very little of action in two books overlap, and so much of March takes place outside the purview of Jo. Alcott doesn't put much of Father in her first book, and March is almost entirely about him.

    Tell me what you think of March!

    ReplyDelete

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