vivian_m_anderson's reviews
125 reviews

Super interesting look into Russian politics, and very funny at the same time. I think the ending is particularly well done in it's clear commentary on how, seemingly no matter what we uncover about our corrupt political systems, nothing ever really seems to substantially change. Hopefully more satires about Russian politics are in my future!

"The newspaper came out on Monday and, though they screamed about it on the Echo of Moscow radio station--they know how to turn any minutia from the newspapers into an event of global proportions--the sky didn't fall to the earth, nor did any high-profile resignations occur, nothing really changed, in fact, and Becky, stirring her tea with a spoon, thought about what would have happened if, say, she had been able to prove, for example, that the FSB had blown up that building in Moscow in '99. She looked at the brown surface of the tea as it settled down after being stirred and understood that no, no, nothing would have happened, nothing at all."

wow. wow. even more incredible on a reread than on the first read. my obsession with beauty as a theme leaves me simply obsessed with this book; toni morrison the woman you are!

not especially profound, but a wonderfully written and extremely clever mystery! i could not in any world put together a mystery how agatha christie has, and i envy her ability to visualize the many twists and turns that occur along the nile. oh, and hercule poirot is really rather charming. perhaps and then there were none next?

truly a triumph of a novel. it is just the perfect length; not so long that it drags on, but just long enough to watch the infection of dorian gray's "pure" soul. deep and profound, with insightful takes on a myriad of subjects, but still witty and at times perfectly clear. we all know i have an obsession with beauty, and thus i found the central theme of beauty absolutely fascinating in this novel. oh, and not to mention its wonderfully and obviously homoerotic. next doppelganger story on my list: the double by dostoevsky!

quote to highlight (though there were many amazing ones): "There was a horrible fascination in them all. He saw them at night, and they troubled his imagination in the day. The Renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning—poisoning by a helmet and a lighted torch, by an embroidered glove and a jewelled fan, by a gilded pomander and by an amber chain. Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful."

short and sweet, but i was a bit too sick to really engage with the material. would like to read more of her stuff though!

remarkably prescient for the time, and wonderfully short.

"nowadays not even a suicide kills himself in desperation. before taking the step he deliberates so long and so carefully that he literally chokes with with thought. it is even questionable whether he ought to be called a suicide, since it is really thought which takes his life. he does not die with deliberation but from deliberation."

truly fabulous, though challenging all the same. as a woman and queer person who has already had not the best experience with healthcare and who anticipates more challenges arising as i enter young adulthood, it resonates powerfully.

"i shook in the shower & i shook in the kitchen & i shook at the doctors & i shook on the sidewalk &
i shook a strangers hand--it was moving. there was an aftershock. a casual conversation."

I was waffling between giving it a 4.25 and a 4.5 for a while, but ultimately landed on a 4.5 for even though I didn't enjoy reading it quite as much as I enjoyed reading, say, Parable of the Talents (which I gave a 4.5), the overall concept of the novel is perhaps even more interesting! The whole theme of alienness is fascinating, and I would've loved to discuss this book in school or a book club with other people. What would it be like for someone who doesn't know possession, capitalism, or money at all to be thrust into those concepts and the effects they have on a society? I particularly liked the back and forth chapter structure, as seeing things develop simultaneously in the "past" on Anarres and the "present" on Urras made for very effective story development and left some things mysteries until the novel's end. The only downfall for me was at times, the physics concepts got a bit too dense and convoluted, but I think that says more about my struggles with physics (and sci-fi, for that matter) than it does about Le Guin's fabulous novel. Hope to read more of her work soon!

a really, really good book--i'm very tempted to give it 4.75 stars, and I might end up doing so after some more thinking. the way naomi klein blends the personal with the political makes the complex systems and concepts that klein covers throughout the book feels more accessible, and I see this as a good recommendation for someone who is interested in politics but not necessary steeped in it. the whole use of the word doppelganger to see different versions of ourselves we create in society (the self as perfected brand, the self as digital avatars, the self as data mine, the self as racist and anti-semetic projection, the child as mirror of the self, and the self as the eternal victim, to name a few) is definitely a way of seeing that I will take with, as with the concept of political diagonalism. also, this got me super tempted to read no logo, so don't be surprised if you see that here sometime soon.