What a great essay, thank you for sharing these quotes and your reflections. I love when a book makes us think about our own lives in an unexpected way.
Thank you, Annie. That unexpected angle is the part I keep chasing (or seems to keep chasing me), when a book isn’t trying to teach you anything and still rearranges something. Has one done that to you recently?
I’m currently reading Lady Tremaine, and the way the main character speaks about motherhood is beautiful. It’s marketed as a retelling of Cinderella from the step mother’s perspective. Going into it, I was expecting something more like a fairy tale, but so far it feels like a story about the fierce love a mother has for her children. There’s one scene in particular when she’s talking about one of her daughters’ births that has resonated with me so much. I’m a little over halfway through, so we’ll see how this plays out during the rest of the book.
Going in for a fairy tale and getting a story about a mother’s fierce love instead is exactly the unexpected angle. Curious whether the back half keeps it or turns her back into the villain.
Wow! That first quote got me. Sometimes it's like looking at a tapestry from different angles, other times I think it's like one person is looking at the front of the tapestry while the other sees the back. Kind of cool that we can get a more complete picture by comparing perspectives, though.
What a great essay, thank you for sharing these quotes and your reflections. I love when a book makes us think about our own lives in an unexpected way.
Thank you, Annie. That unexpected angle is the part I keep chasing (or seems to keep chasing me), when a book isn’t trying to teach you anything and still rearranges something. Has one done that to you recently?
I’m currently reading Lady Tremaine, and the way the main character speaks about motherhood is beautiful. It’s marketed as a retelling of Cinderella from the step mother’s perspective. Going into it, I was expecting something more like a fairy tale, but so far it feels like a story about the fierce love a mother has for her children. There’s one scene in particular when she’s talking about one of her daughters’ births that has resonated with me so much. I’m a little over halfway through, so we’ll see how this plays out during the rest of the book.
Going in for a fairy tale and getting a story about a mother’s fierce love instead is exactly the unexpected angle. Curious whether the back half keeps it or turns her back into the villain.
Wow! That first quote got me. Sometimes it's like looking at a tapestry from different angles, other times I think it's like one person is looking at the front of the tapestry while the other sees the back. Kind of cool that we can get a more complete picture by comparing perspectives, though.
Always great to compare perspectives. Which side do you think most of us are showing?
Hmm. I would guess what we show most often depends on who we’re sharing with.
Very true.