Madame Bovary

Author: Gustave Flaubert

Genre: Classic, Realism

Rating: B+

I wasn't a huge fan of Madam Bovary, for a number of reasons.  While I realize that it's classic literature and it's really well written, I found I really struggled in reading this novel.  On the one hand, I found a good chunk of it to be a bit boring - it's full of really elegant passages and there are moments that are really exciting, but for the most part it's all a bit dull and nothing seems to really happen.  I mean, yes, stuff happens, and yes there is this arch, but a lot of the time instead of showing me what's happening Flaubert instead simply tells me what's happened 

Madam Bovary follows the life of one Charles Bovary and his second wife, the young Emma.  Charles is a not too bright doctor in a provincial town of France who is madly in love with the idea of his wife and extremely devoted to her.  Emma is... well, Emma is basically a bitch who's read too much and as such has developed an idea of what love should be - and it's not what she has with her husband.  Love in her mind is only what it depicted in books and is full of grand gestures and what not. So, eventually, she decides to embark on an affair - and eventually her actions lead to ruin for all.

So, yeah.  Emma is not likeable. Charles is not likeable.  While you might feel bad for them both at various points in the novel - particularly in the end - you don't actually ever like them or even root for them.  The situation that they get themselves into is of their own doing and simply because they're both improperly educated (and aspiring to rise above their station in life, which was a no-no at the time), and because they don't communicate - also a no-no at the time.

The one thing that I did like about this book was the commentary that it makes on French life and French people.  I also enjoyed the commentary that it makes about relationships in general - one issue that was pointed out to me is just how the theme of communication is one that has come up time and time again in fiction surrounding relationships.  If people communicated better within Madam Bovary then the story would have a very different ending.  And maybe the characters would have been likeable.  That's actually the thing about this - there's no one here who I felt I should be rooting for.  I liked some of the more side characters, at least at times, but for the most part everyone sucked.  Except Justin, Justin was kind of great, but you knew he wasn't going to do well through the course of the novel - at least not until he escaped from everyone.

Recommendations: January 4

There is nothing good coming out this week.  Just to prove that, here's this week's new releases: Texas Chainsaw 3D and A Dark Truth.  The first one because clearly we need another Texas Chainsaw Massacre film (although this one does feature Scott Eastwood, Clint Eastwood's son). The second... I'm not even going to touch that one.  Needless to say, I will not be seeing any of these.

Cosmopolis -Robert Pattinson's latest attempt in breaking free of the Twilight hold.  I haven't seen this one, although I kind of did want to.  Maybe you want to?

Looper - One of the best sci-fi, time travel films I've seen in a long time.  I loved this movie and recommend it to anyone and everyone - especially if you love paradoxes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, or Bruce Willis.

Madam Bovary - I haven't really mention a lot of the classics, owing in no small part to the really random way in which I make my book recommendations.  However, I've recently joined a book club of sorts, and the first book that we're reading is Madam Bovary, the nineteenth century masterpiece, so I'm recommending it to you.  After all, you can't go wrong with a masterpiece.