Dominika- I really like how you close this piece with: “Actually, the meeting he had projected could take place only in heaven…Or call it art…Only there—in heaven or art, in that nowhere, on that plane—could Karen have told Leopold what had really been.” So true on so many levels.🙌🏼
Thank you! It's such a good line! I found Bowen's writing difficult at times but then she'll come out with something so strikingly beautiful and resonant like that and it almost gives me reading whiplash 😅
I agree with all of what you said and “unflinching” is definitely descriptive of the book in general! Gosh, I know though. Her writing is exceptional.
I just borrowed Diary of a Country Priest from Sashi a couple of weeks ago but haven’t started it yet! I’m thinking of trying the Close Reads podcast as a listen along with it.
I love the clarity you brought to this overwhelming and at times tedious yet somehow still agonizing book. Reading your post right after finishing it gave me some of my stolen peace back haha. It feels so unfinished to me, yet I wouldn’t want to read more of what comes next. At the same time, some passages were achingly beautiful and it made me wonder about Bowen herself and what had given her such human insight and yet such a deeply wounded outlook. To leave out so much that can be beautiful and redeeming in suffering by showing each character in ultimate internal isolation leaves me with a feeling of bleakness. At the same time, I feel I am almost strengthened by reading it to say “it can be different! There IS hope!” And I am glad to have read it although I couldn’t hope to rate it with stars 😂😂
This is just my initial impression. Hoping to understand more as I ponder.
Couldn't hope to rate it with stars is the most accurate statement 😂 Also, I get the hoping to understand more by pondering. I felt like I needed to write this in order to work out my thoughts. And there's so much more to think about than what I had space to cover here. So much more could be said about the fraught maternal relationships.
I did find the unfinished ending thematically appropriate and poetically satisfying, but I also did not want to spend any more time with these characters by the end. I want to read more of her work but with a substantial break between each one.
I find the way she portrays suffering is really interesting because of what an unflinching look she turns on how many people do experience suffering--as you say, as something unredeeming and isolating. For me it made that climactic moment between the children all the more poignant. I think it must be tremendously hard to write the redemptive angle of suffering without coming across as naively optimistic to someone who is isolated in their suffering. I'm working back through Diary of a Country Priest (tryyyying to finish a post about it but life right now 🫠), and I think Bernanos does this brilliantly but it's brutal and makes our dear Elizabeth Goudge look twee (and she's a solace to me! But she wouldn't be to everyone I'm sure).
But man, Bowen's writing. That scene in the garden of Karen's aunt's and uncle's house. That was some of the finest prose I've ever come across. Heartbreaking.
Dominika- I really like how you close this piece with: “Actually, the meeting he had projected could take place only in heaven…Or call it art…Only there—in heaven or art, in that nowhere, on that plane—could Karen have told Leopold what had really been.” So true on so many levels.🙌🏼
Thank you! It's such a good line! I found Bowen's writing difficult at times but then she'll come out with something so strikingly beautiful and resonant like that and it almost gives me reading whiplash 😅
Haha I don’t think I even made it through a whole episode but there’s is a season for everything 🤞🏻😉
I agree with all of what you said and “unflinching” is definitely descriptive of the book in general! Gosh, I know though. Her writing is exceptional.
I just borrowed Diary of a Country Priest from Sashi a couple of weeks ago but haven’t started it yet! I’m thinking of trying the Close Reads podcast as a listen along with it.
That's a good idea! I think I listened to their first episode on it and it was good, but I'm never committed enough to finish all the episodes
I love the clarity you brought to this overwhelming and at times tedious yet somehow still agonizing book. Reading your post right after finishing it gave me some of my stolen peace back haha. It feels so unfinished to me, yet I wouldn’t want to read more of what comes next. At the same time, some passages were achingly beautiful and it made me wonder about Bowen herself and what had given her such human insight and yet such a deeply wounded outlook. To leave out so much that can be beautiful and redeeming in suffering by showing each character in ultimate internal isolation leaves me with a feeling of bleakness. At the same time, I feel I am almost strengthened by reading it to say “it can be different! There IS hope!” And I am glad to have read it although I couldn’t hope to rate it with stars 😂😂
This is just my initial impression. Hoping to understand more as I ponder.
Couldn't hope to rate it with stars is the most accurate statement 😂 Also, I get the hoping to understand more by pondering. I felt like I needed to write this in order to work out my thoughts. And there's so much more to think about than what I had space to cover here. So much more could be said about the fraught maternal relationships.
I did find the unfinished ending thematically appropriate and poetically satisfying, but I also did not want to spend any more time with these characters by the end. I want to read more of her work but with a substantial break between each one.
I find the way she portrays suffering is really interesting because of what an unflinching look she turns on how many people do experience suffering--as you say, as something unredeeming and isolating. For me it made that climactic moment between the children all the more poignant. I think it must be tremendously hard to write the redemptive angle of suffering without coming across as naively optimistic to someone who is isolated in their suffering. I'm working back through Diary of a Country Priest (tryyyying to finish a post about it but life right now 🫠), and I think Bernanos does this brilliantly but it's brutal and makes our dear Elizabeth Goudge look twee (and she's a solace to me! But she wouldn't be to everyone I'm sure).
But man, Bowen's writing. That scene in the garden of Karen's aunt's and uncle's house. That was some of the finest prose I've ever come across. Heartbreaking.