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Queen VW

This is far from Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, but it's hard to beat Woolf's painfully beautiful prose. Unfortunately, I had trouble finding much substance beyond the prose. Between the Acts seemed little more than word porn, candy for English majors, a guilty pleasure, enthralling in the moment but leaving me unfulfilled and longing for something deeper.
Like most of Woolf's novels, this isn't a book one should read for the plot. The main characters are audience members for a play, and much of the book's dialogue is nothing more than their snarky whispered commentary.
I have to confess - Woolf's writing is, by design, difficult to follow, and I know that a lot of this book went over my head, particularly the literary allusions that abound in it. I would have gotten more out of it in the context of a class or book club where I could discuss it with other people. In the absence of that, reading the introduction after finishing the book did help me understand it better.
On the whole, not a super accessible book, but certainly worth reading if you've already read Woolf's best works and are craving more.

I wrote a whole paper on the use of color in this book so that's there if you're feeling it. But honestly you can't go wrong with Virginia Woolf.

Jäi vähän etäiseksi tämä. Koin itseni ulkopuoliseksi kirjan maailmasta. Yläluokkainen englantilainen maaseutu ja kylän harrastelijateatteriesitys. Kaipausta, sanomattomuutta, kohtaamattomuutta. Intertekstiaalisuutta ja suoria lainauksia englantilaisesta (oletan) kirjallisuudesta henkilöhahmojen puheessa, joista osa itselleni vieraita että niiden merkitys hukkui. Parasta lukukokemuksessa oli teatteriesityksen kuvaus ja sisältö, koska eheää. Ehkä suomennoksen taitto mätti kun en aina tiennyt kuka puhui kenelle ja mitä esityksen ulkopuolella?

“You’re very hard for me to read” — Edward Cullen