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Leah's Reviews > Beasts
Beasts
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In finishing the novella, I remain wholly unenthusiastic about its premise and conclusion. The characters were adequately developed: Gillian, Andre, and Dorcas made the [un?] holy trinity of main characters. The peripheral, secondary characters seemed heavy handed: Sybil? Marisa? ...They seemed written in as part of another story line that was never quite developed or integrated.
It's incidental to me that while the book takes place at a women's college, ostensibly among close friends, each action and behavior seemed totally encapsulated in the individual character. There is little non-superficial interaction between anyone, excite for Gillian's insipid fawning. Maybe that was the point, that each individual is completely isolated from one another ... but were that the intention, I remain even less impressed with this work.
I expected the book to fit more into the tradition of being John Fowles-esque, insofar as the character becomes very much a victim of others behaviors. For me, the main problem was that there wasn't enough struggle, there wasn't' enough conflict internalized by the characters.
It's incidental to me that while the book takes place at a women's college, ostensibly among close friends, each action and behavior seemed totally encapsulated in the individual character. There is little non-superficial interaction between anyone, excite for Gillian's insipid fawning. Maybe that was the point, that each individual is completely isolated from one another ... but were that the intention, I remain even less impressed with this work.
I expected the book to fit more into the tradition of being John Fowles-esque, insofar as the character becomes very much a victim of others behaviors. For me, the main problem was that there wasn't enough struggle, there wasn't' enough conflict internalized by the characters.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2008
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Finished Reading
January 9, 2008
– Shelved
January 9, 2008
– Shelved as:
purchased-2008
January 10, 2008
– Shelved as:
read-2008
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quail
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Jan 11, 2008 01:25PM
Interesting review. Have you read any other Joyce Carol Oates, and can you compare it to any of her other work?
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I surprised a little to read this impression about the secondary characters in the book because, in my opinion, the other characters are only an interior projection of Gillian and it might be that they have not the qualities have been projected on them by Gillian. For example 鈥榖eautiful鈥� Dominique or prof Harrow...I think that these characters are how Gillian is able to see them, in bad or right sense. Anyway it is interesting what you has written about the individuals in the college where the isolation (individualism?) is often a real suffering for some students :-)
