So…I did a bad thing. I was supposed to be following Cleo’s readalong schedule for The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Unfortunately, curiosity and momentum got the better of me. I read the entire second half in day…which was probably a huge mistake.
I’m not going to do a complete review in this post, because I’m still holding out hope that further discussion will change my mind about the book. But what follows are my irreverent, completely uncensored insta-reactions.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT. And I mean MAJOR!!!!!
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The plot of the book as I saw it:
- Formerly rich girl sets off to find love and money.
- Gets love and money. From different guys unfortunately.
- Can’t pick between Rich Guy and True-Love Guy. Loses both.
- Tries to accept poor singledom and fails.
- Overdoses on drugs and dies.
This was truly not the disaster I was anticipating. 😕
I’m really upset Wharton took the book this direction. That’s kind of an understatement. I didn’t like Lily, but I was rooting for her. She had it in her to get better. She could’ve patched it up with the True-Love Guy later on, if she’d just given it more time.
This was like that brutal scene in Jane Eyre when she’s suddenly homeless, with apparently no future and no meaningful past. Imagine Jane just ending it all right there. That’s how this felt.
I’m not undermining the power of depression; it’s a terrible thing, I know personally. But I’ve made it through some stuff that never seemed to end. I wanted to see Lily make it through, too.
Ok… I’m going to give this a break for a bit and continue to follow the readalong discussions. Maybe some other perspective will help me out.
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