Jenny Fern reviewed The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Review of 'The Blue Flower' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
There are some beautiful and compelling lines in this book, but almost none of it comes together as something that feels whole.
As an exercise in history, I quite enjoyed hearing some of the specific details. Otherwise, this book just makes me feel sad but in an empty way.
I'd like to note that a lot of this was disjointed and hard to follow. Sometimes I didn't know who people were or generally what their ages were - the characters were generally flat.
The impact of this book on me is that the love interest, Sophie, seems to have led such a short and empty existence. The treatment of her is very odd in this text. She's very young (I think 12) when Fritz falls in love with her. Not only that, but she's barely a person.
If I recall correctly, she's poorly educated because at one point her teacher …
There are some beautiful and compelling lines in this book, but almost none of it comes together as something that feels whole.
As an exercise in history, I quite enjoyed hearing some of the specific details. Otherwise, this book just makes me feel sad but in an empty way.
I'd like to note that a lot of this was disjointed and hard to follow. Sometimes I didn't know who people were or generally what their ages were - the characters were generally flat.
The impact of this book on me is that the love interest, Sophie, seems to have led such a short and empty existence. The treatment of her is very odd in this text. She's very young (I think 12) when Fritz falls in love with her. Not only that, but she's barely a person.
If I recall correctly, she's poorly educated because at one point her teacher beat her and was sent away. Since then she learned little. She's thought of as not remarkable in any way and if anything, rather dull.
Then she gets ill and is sick, undergoing various ineffective treatments and operations, until she dies alone after turning 15.
The journal entries from her also make me quite sad. For example, "Thursday September 13, Today was hot and there was thunder and nothing happened and Hardenburch did not come. September 14, Today no-one came and nothing happened"
I don't understand the reason this book exists, but it leaves me contemplating this girl's empty life. And despite Fritz being out main character, I ended up feeling nothing about him.