Colette Books

This tale of the famous author Colette's childhood is a beautiful word-picture tribute to her mother, Sido, and a glimpse into 19th century childhood in Burgundy, France. A captivating, haunting, beautifully written book, this is a must-read for anyone who has read any of Colette's work, or anyone who wishes he or she could write such a touching childhood memoir.

I first read this book back when the earth was cooling. When I wanted to reread it, I couldn't find it, so I bought another copy. I've loaned it out, never had it returned, bought it again, ditto, ditto, ditto.
I've probably bought this book 10 times over the past 20 years, and that's no doubt a record for me.
People associate Colette with Cheri and her other erotic and somewhat scandalous writing and life-style.
Sido (her mother) and My Mother's House are written in an altogether different tone: lyrical, idyllic, dreamy, funny (of course; she's a very funny writer), nostalgic.
Read these two companion books, usually sold in a single volume, to get a real taste of what it was like to spend your childhood in rural France before the turn of the last century, in an eccentric household run by an unusually permissive mother and a much older, loving but distant father.
To read these books is to be sucked into another era by a writer uniquely skilled at her craft - and most of all, it gives you a fresh appreciation for the child who became Colette.

France seems to produce more than its share of wonderful stylists who don't have much to say (Georges Simenon also comes to mind). This is a lovely, cozy read, but I'd sure like to know what the other reviewer found that is especially about women or directed toward women. I find what Janet Flanner said about Colette much more to the point, something to the effect that there was hardly a tree in French literature until Colette came along. What she does--and does supremely well--is describe flowers, insects, trees, whole gardens beautifully and precisely. For this reader that's quite enough.

There are many Colettes, and I cherish them all. But the one dearest to me is the Colette who wrote so lovingly and voluptuously of her early years. In "My Mother's House" and "Sido" Colette writes about her family, her childhood in the country, and the creatures - human and otherwise - which informed those years.

In her writing about these years, Colette describes the inner life of children, country life, and her parents and their odd, affectionate and often difficult relationship with each other and with their children. We have the sense of lives tied to the earth and the turn of seasons, particularly through loving descriptions of her mother, Sido.

These two memoirs are not about "not much" as one reviewer puts it, they're about the sensuality of life, about enduring bonds of love and of blood, and about the education of a writer. Perfectly gorgeous work, and highly recommended.

Collette holds out parts of her life for us to examime the way a woman lays out photographs for visitors to browse. These unique literary snapshots offer a delicate image of a woman's memory of a part of her life, and they are at once both delightful and common in the way they speak to women of those experiences and insights that are female. Deceptive simplicity in its wonderfully written images of provincial life.

Nightmare in Silicon is the tale of one woman's struggle to shake off her gender-identity while running away from reality by drowning herself in sex and drugs and like-minded individuals. But she betrays her body and her body returns the favor; instead of taking the route of oblivion (the only true way to run away from yourself), she chooses immortality.

Told in very plain, yet crushing, language, NiS is a cult classic story that doesn't try and force your mind around philosophical or metaphorical questions or postulations, and instead, invites you to understand Ymo (the protagonist) through her own language and actions.

Well written, vibrant, and scary, NiS (and I hate to use cliched terms like it) is a page-turner.

How can you go wrong with sex, drugs, science fiction and robots? This book answers that question, presenting a cyberpunk-ish take (at least 15 years too late) on one woman's downward spiral and (sort of) robo-redemption. There are some neat tricks of language and a real push by the author to say "something" BIG and IMPORTANT. But it's all been said before and far better by Dick, Ballard, Gibson, etc. Here, the icy futuristic style actually detracts from the novel's impact, robbing the characters and situations of any heat they might have otherwise generated. The abundant sex, presumably metaphorical, just gets tiresome. Phair does show some flair -- but this one just doesn't click for me.

This novel transcends the labels of science fiction or cyberpunk, and deserves to be read for what it is: brilliantly vivid literature, tightly crafted work, and above all a uniquely strong story told in a distinctive and seductive voice. Nightmare in Silicon has the substantiality to move out of a perceived niche and into the hands of anyone who likes to read, and likes to think.

Colette Phair has done something remarkable in this relatively brief work - she has instilled in me a new sense of hope for this genre (sub-genre?). After a decade or more of re-hashed cyberpunk novels from some dreadful writers, Ms. Phair has given us a story we only think we have heard before. It is clear from the beginning that we are not dealing simply with a dystopian future of corporate rule and virtual life, but rather a young woman faced with a frightening situation and who is offered a seemingly miraculous solution.
This book has the question of gender in its heart and what it means to be human in its head. Nightmare in Silicon is not your typical cyberpunk novel - it is a brilliant debut by an author I will be closely watching for years to come.

This is the future of science fiction. While Dick is dead and Gibson is busy writing about the present, Phair is there for you in the impending apocalypse. If you don't find something to love about Ymo's story, then something may be lacking in your taste. Words are weaved masterfully, telling a beautiful & mysterious tale of sex, dreams and death. This nightmare will haunt your dreams and keep you coming back to it like a pernicious prostitute. Check it out if you like Lynch and cyberpunk stories and revel in the glory of "A Nightmare in Silicon."

Gillian Slovo is unapologetic in her rather petulant story of a neglected childhood. While her parents pursued Communism and pushed against the apartheid government of South Africa, all the while earning a good income with her father's lawyering, she and her sisters suffered especially her ambitious mother's indifference, imprisonment and lack of home life "quality time".

Ruth First, daughter of Polish Jews, ambitious in her own right and extremely intelligent and sharp-tongued, married Joe Slovo, also Jewish, of Russian origin, with struggling parents. It was a climb up for him, with the steady rise of his income as a lawyer in post-WWII South Africa under white rule. His children lived well, enjoyed the blacks as servants, and attended private schools. The parents ran hither and to as Communists tend to do.

What makes this book uncommonly candid from a red is that the daughter, while unequivocally defending her parents' "struggles", openly begrudges their self-absorption and cause-related time-consuming party activities. When her parents become wanted criminals, the father escapes over the border and the mother ultimately goes to prison. Understandably, our writer, the daughter Gillian, is annoyed. She and her siblings avoid mentioning their parents in any of their schools, but her Russian-Jewish name betrays their origins, their parents' political proclivities, and brands the daughters as traitors.

The inside battle of any political movement will always take its toll on the activists' children. This part of the book is almost comical in its self-centeredness, but we all can relate if we have had parents with any reasons for indifference or neglect.

What I enjoyed was reading how her parents had come to such political ideas, why they dove in to the blacks' cause so valiantly, and how they throve on the injustice to others. When push came to shove, the mother takes the daughters to England, since the Communists and others of their ilk have made South Africa a blood bath for whites. To this day, the nonblacks of that country are fleeing in huge numbers, not the least of which are the descendants of the persecuted Jews of Russia and Poland, who classify themselves as "white", yet still oppressed in spite of great economic priviledge.

The effect of Communist ideas on emerging nations has been catastrophic, but rare is the book that tells openly how devious and traitorous its proponents can be. The end result always seems to send them scurrying out of the nation in which they had once prospered, to go to yet another free nation and stir up further unrest.

Rest assured that they would not move into a black neighborhood in England or America, no matter their anti-apartheid views!

Thanks to Gillian Slovo for revealing the inside scoop on these infamous Reds.

i only read a small portion of Every Little Thing - having sat sobbing throughout A World Apart - the poignant movie version.

i followed the comings and goings of both joe slovo and ruth first, and was myself in exile in lestho, when father john osmond had his hand blown off by parcel bomb; in detention, when albie sachs had his hand blown off in moçambique; under restriction back in johannesburg, when ruth was assisinated in moçambique; in my second stint in exile in botswana when jeannette and katryn schoon were murdered by parcel bomb in angola.

the pathos deliverered in A World Apart wrenched my insides apart, for many of the questions gillian had for her father, my own daughter - separated from me being in exile - she in johannesburg, she pleaded me for, for clear answers. her young enquiring mind was never satiated with whatever i had to proffer.

the sad thing about these situations is that we have no clear answers - no magic solution, for when gross injustices prevail within a "civilised" society, some of us who heed the call - take up the challenge to right these inhumane wrongs. we are forced to forgo our own comforts and loved ones. the call of the multitudes, far exceeds those of our own personal loved ones; for we reach/strive for that day, when all our children - black, white, brown or yellow will be able to live as proud children under one free and democratic governement. only then will we all be opportuned to live out their dreams and aspirations as proud citizens of the world - an integral part of humanity ...

and it was this message that tore at my gut, my heart ... my troubled mind - that made me feel a little more proud of the many sacrifices so many of us were forced to endure. that our children and loved ones had to be denied our love and support and guidance that we as responsible adults/parents should have been fulfilling, can never be repayed; for within our offspring, the emptiness of both parents being there for them - when most needed has come and gone ...

A great read that poses the difficult question: what ought to come first--one's children, or one's cause? Especially challenging when the cause is the end of apartheid. Gillian Slovo is bitter that she didn't have her parents because they were busy trying to free South Africa. Understandable from an individual point of view, but the contribution of the Slovos to the anti-apartheid movement was invaluable. I don't know the correct answer to the question, but I do know that this is a good and engaging tale.

This book is very well and sensitively written. It gives a very vivid picture of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, two very strong willed people who were dedicated to the anti apartheid struggle in the dark years of apartheid in the last 40 years before the first democratic elections in 1994.

Here we get a true picture of how ths couple had sacrificed their family life for what they had believed in and how this had effected their relationship with their eldest daughter (the author). One cannot help but empathize with the author who makes no bones about the neglect that her parents had towards her relationship with them and how she truly wanted to know more about her parents who were rather secretive towards her.

The book makes very exciting reading. My main criticism is that there is a tendency to jump backwards and forwards in the past. There seems to be a problem of continuity of style as passed anecdotes are retold at different stages in this biography.There is also a tendency to repetition. This tends to marr a rather good book which is recommended to all those who are interested in the history of the freedom struggle in South Africa.

I started reading this book because the author is a friend. But I soon found myself captivated by Nina Moreki's story. This tale of day-to-day life as the Nazi threat closed in brought the Holocaust to life for me as nothing ever has before. I couldn't put it down.

Once in a while, a person with an amazing story is quite literally stumbled upon. This is what happened when author Colette Waddell heard Nina Grütz- Morecki speak about her experiences during World War II as it raged through Poland. It was because of Nina's talk, that the author discovered an interest in helping Nina tell her story to a wider audience.


Nina Grütz was born during the winter of 1920. Her parents were a well to do Jewish couple who owned a soap factory in L'vow Poland. She grew up knowing prosperity, and led a life sheltered from the anti-Semitic outlook held by many of the Polish Catholics. All that changed the year Nina was getting ready to leave home to attend University. Nina's family faced the Russian invasion of Poland, followed by the German invasion of Russian-occupied Poland. With the Russian occupation, the Grütz family faced socialism and being separated. With the German occupation, Nina watched her family members disappear, and finally faced internment in a work camp herself.


Expanding on the story that Nina tells to high school students as a guest speaker, Through the Eyes of a Stranger, follows Nina as she escapes death at the work camp. She was rescued from death of starvation in the forest by a kind Polish couple, and afterwards she joined the Polish resistance movement. As a member of the resistance Nina infiltrated a German occupied town, and worked in a position that allowed her to learn of the German's plans and send the information and vital papers needed to move around Poland to her underground contacts. However when the Russians retook the area, Nina once again found her life in upheaval. It was during this time that Nina met Josef, her future husband. When the war finally ended, they joined up with a group of displaced Jews all trying to leave the country. Nina and her husband eventually made it to America, and the book follows their lives as they make a new home and family for themselves in a new country.


It took me a little while getting used to the writing style of the book. The alternating styles between an oral history and a study of the effects of the war seemed to be a little at odds to each other. This book is an attempt to educate the public on the effect of the war on Poland's Jews. It is an extraordinary example of the resiliency of the human spirit, and our ability to live through unthinkable horrors and to emerge from them stronger, even though we will be changed forever.

More than 60 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, when the world first began to learn of the true scope of the evil perpetrated against the Jewish people of Europe. By now, most people have at least a general idea of the magnitude and nature of the Nazis' plan, but at the individual level, the story remains fuzzy. It is only through the unique stories of those who survived that we can have any hope of understanding what it was like for the millions of victims who died because of the accident of their birth as heirs of the Jewish faith and culture. So many families perished in their entirety, their stories lost forever, making the stories of the survivors that much more important in chronicling the power of unchecked evil to destroy innocent lives.

Unlike many survivors' accounts, this book describes life both before and after the war, so that we can better understand the scope of the personal tragedy suffered by Nina. Born and raised in an affluent family, Nina lost everything, only barely escaping death itself. Her ability to think quickly on her feet, to blend into the general population and most of all her instinct for survival somehow saw her through the terrible ordeal. However, while she went on to live the "American Dream", she never fully recovered from her experiences during the war. In speaking out and sharing her story, she is finally confronting the reality of what was taken from her, and helping to ensure that we learn from the past, so that we might never face such evil again.

[This review is based on an Advance Review Copy]

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)

"I have told this story to Colette for many reasons. I want people to understand what happened during World War II, to know what was done to us Jews for no reason at all, other than that we happened to be Jewish. I also want young people to learn from the things I did in my life that allowed me to survive. But my greatest hope in sharing this story is so that my parents and other family members did not die in vain. I truly believe that telling others about their murders and speaking out against genocide, racism, and hatred can and will make a difference."

Nina Grutz's family was successful in business in Poland. The community respected them. Nina's life was one of wealth. "The Grutz family was part of a Jewish population that thrived at a time when almost three-quarter of the Jews in Europe called Poland home." "It seems to me now that my life before the war was so very happy and full. My own little world was regulated and small, but this was how my parents raised me and it felt very secure. I had a good family life, I loved my sisters, and I even began to spend time with boys in a social way. We did not go out on dates like young people do today, but spent time in groups with relatives or together with adults present."

Then came the day when Nina's father felt it was no longer safe. One day Nina attended a lecture with a companion. He realized Nina was Jewish. "I walked in with him and found that there were older students directing people where to sit. They yelled out, "Jews on the left side and Poles on the right!" I was proud to be a Jew, so I started to go to the left when my companion pulled me by the hand and asked, "Where are you going?" Nina was proud to be Jewish and never tried to hide it but she spoke fluent Polish and dressed like everyone else.

When the bombings began, the Grutz family decided it would be safer to separate. Nina went to live with her aunt. Life was never the same for Nina but she didn't give up. Nina assisted with the Underground by smuggling travel papers. She met and married Josef Morecki. Nina's story is one of triumph.

This is a story that has to be told. This is a heartrending story, but it is more. "This is one survival tale that is neither enduringly sad nor depressing. It is, in fact, a story of hope and endurance and, ultimately even prosperity in a new life in a new land."

Colette Waddell is an extremely talented writer. She successfully paints a picture of words that tells Nina's life. It is an honor to read Nina's story. It is told with humor, which testifies to the character of Nina. I'm glad I read this book. It should be required reading for everyone. For only when we come to understand what happened during the Holocaust will be make sure it never happens again. It is with great honor that I highly recommend "Through the Eyes of a Survivor" to all readers.

For the past four years, I have used this book as a "textbook" for teaching beginning French conversation to elementary students in our schools. The book pairs easy-to-learn phrases with simple pictures--and does not go too deep into French grammar, which is perfect for my teaching methods. The book encourages the joy of "speaking" rather than conjugating verbs, and should not be purchased by those who need (or want) to enhance their grammar skills. But for "speaking conversational phrases" it's perfect...and the appendix, with its simplified vocabulary, is great. My husband, who knows NO French except what he "learned" from this book, survives in France very well when we take young students to Paris on a "field trip." This book is a very good way to begin learning the complicated French language.

I am a reluctant learner of the French language. I own so many books, CD's, cassettes, and videos on the French language--over $1,000 worth. I am under obligation (how did that happen?) to eventually learn French since I married a Swiss-French man. I am a serious reader and have a hard time fitting in this language study on the side of my more important reading. I have to comment on this book, though. If you are reluctant, have something going on which makes it hard to dive into a foreign language, or just want a book that makes you feel good right away about the language, get this book. It is not intimidating at all. It has a nice progression. It is the first French language book I go to because it's also a fun book which makes it easier to retain what I've read.

This book will get you started with phrases and proved a real survivor manual for me while traveling through France. The key to learning French is to try and speak it. I found this book helpful and encouraging...

This book is written in French, which will be a bit daunting for non-French speaking people. On the otherhand, the book offers many excellent photographs of vintage dolls and clothing for Bleuette. The book does not cover the large number of catalogs published for Bleuette's wardrobe from 1916-1960. I found the lack of an index and lack of organization of the material to be an impediment to quickly accessing the book's factual material.

The book is in french and out of print, but there is an english version approved by the original author and available for sale in America. I have it and its great! Good luck finding it! It wasn't easy. Try the doll shows, Barbara Hilliker or Doris Lechter, American authors on the Bleuette doll.

I would just like to say that i recently got the oppurtunity to meet Mrs. Inez at a high school poetry competetion and she is every bit as graceful and enlightening as her poetry---

Colette Inez is one of the few poets who can transform her personal history so that it becomes as powerful as the stories we hand down from generation to generation. Sad and inspiring, Inez's central theme is her struggle to comprehend and imagine her parents, a scholar and a priest, who abandoned her to a Catholic orphanage in Brussels and eventually foster homes in the United States. As a survivor of abandonment and alcoholic abuse, Inez is especially sensitive to finding those small moments that keep us alive, that give us hope, that allow us to look at the worst of life and move beyond it. She writes of the passion of her parents; the austere life of orphans; the love she has for her own husband; the great artists who inspire her; and the nature of animals, angels, and trees. Those who admire poetry will find Inez a graceful writer who knows how to find just the right words and images to convey difficult personal history so that it never becomes sentimental, so that it gains its own mythic power. Those who have suffered abuse, no matter the source, will see Inez as a survivor of great courage.

Gabrielle Colette died in 1954. She is most famous for writing "Gigi" which became a Broadway musical and Oscar winning film. Gabrielle was a talented, gifted writer, with aesthetic skills and a charming perception of humans, particularily the society she grew up in early twentieth century France. A fascinating woman, she wrote mainly short stories, dealing with women coming of age, older women making new decisions, relationships with intensity, and all of her characters have memorable nuances. She may have drawn from personal experience. Colette was clearly a woman with deep understanding of the nature of love and the course of human emotions.

Gigi is the story of a young woman brought up in a decadent, materialistic society. Her aunts have raised her to become a mistress, a courtesan for the wealthy. Gaston falls for Gigi, and attempts to make her his mistress. But Gigi refuses to be a part of the pretentious society in Paris, wanting an honest and open relationship based on love. In the end, she is granted this for remaining true to herself. Julie de Carneilha and Chance Encounters are striking tales of women in love, beautifully written and set in the opulence of Paris. Colette is a cosmopolitan writer, one can almost see her as she writes with a bottle of champagne on her writing desk, a view of the Eiffel tower from her window and a vivid imagination that takes flight.

I started reading this collection because of the author herself, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, being something of the patron saints of voluptuaries... I felt like I wanted to get to know her better, so I decided the best way would be to read some of her best loved works.

"Gigi", the most popular from this collection, was actually my least favorite in the bunch. It was entertaining and sweet, but much less mature than the other two novellas. The one aspect of it that I loved were the sensory descriptions and I wondered how the original French might be different or the same.

The translation by Richard Senhouse was beautiful, word choices were entrancing.

My favorite selection was "Julie de Carneilhan" as the main character was such an independent spirit and unconventional in the same sense I believe Colette was. It was through this title I really felt like I got to know the author intimately. The writing style favors action with tightly woven descriptive and sensory elements which also tune into Colette's voluptuary leanings.

The introduction to the entire text by Judith Thurman provides a brief mini-biography which provided more details of the author's personal and creative life.

Colette, perhaps best known to Americans as the author of "Gigi" (1945) was a prolific French novelist, critic, playwright, and performer. She also wrote the four "Claudine" novels (1900-1903), and became celebrated for "Cheri" (1920; followed by "The Last of Cheri" in 1926).

She regarded "The Pure and the Impure" as her best work; a mostly autobiographical treatise on Eros and love, particularly Sapphic love. She mixes a reporter's objectivity with deeply felt analysis psychological and philosophical observations. Sometimes she takes a dispassionate, almost distant look at passion; other times her emotional attachments to her subjects--primarily lesbian aristocrats and artistes--are candidly exposed.

She is an exquisite writer without being precious. Colette bends words and phrases perfectly, and one is struck by her vivid yet subtle prose, as evocative as Woolf but perhaps even more sensual. "The Pure and the Impure" contains memorable passages of keen observation and wit, and one feels drawn to her observations:

"...I delighted in the...empty gaiety of the chatter and the diverting and challenging exchange of glances, the cryptic reference to certain treasons, comprehended at once, and the sudden outbursts of ferocity. I reveled...in their half-spoken language, the exchange of threats, of promises, as if, once the slow-thinking male had been banished, every message from woman to woman became clear and overwhelming, restricted to a small but infallible number of signs..."

This is not to deny, however, that reading the book is sometimes difficult. Whether due to the translation, the era, or Colette's particular style, her writing can be challenging, particularly her last chapter, a very subjective, personal description of jealousy.

This is a beautifully written book about the erotic, about men and women, and about the natural history of love. I urge you to introduce yourself to her writings. Highly recommended.

The Pure and the Impure by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette with introduction by Judith Thurman (Literature/Gay Studies). Recommended.

Colette believed The Pure and the Impure was her best work. I can't judge, not having read anything of hers but a few short stories, but this collection of her observations about human attitudes toward relationships and sexuality is insightful and timeless. It is also difficult and obscure at times, perhaps because of the translation and because there is no real structure to such a collection.

Thanks to her milieu, her position in it, and her willingness to seek the story, Colette could draw upon the most interesting people of her time-the givers and the takers. From the older woman who publicly fakes an orgasm while self-pleasuring in an opium house to gladden the heart of her young, sickly lover to the roué who exclaims of women, "They allow us to be their master in the sex act, but never their equal. That is what I cannot forgive them" to the circle of prominent women who learn the ways of sex from servants, dress as men, and love horses (she calls the most notable of these women "La Chevalière) to the "happy," alcoholic, lesbian poet Renée Vivien to the gay men with whom she seems most comfortable, Colette covers a spectrum of sexuality and combinations-including those men and women who play their heterosexual and homosexual relations against one another.

"I'm devoted to that boy, with all my heart," the older woman tells Colette, a stranger to her. "But what is the heart, madame? It's worth less than people think. It's quite accommodating. It accepts anything. You give it whatever you have, it's not very particular. But the body . . . Ha! That's something else, again." Thurman believes this sums up Colette's view precisely, the heart as a slave to the body.

Although Colette apparently wanted to remain an impartial observer, she cannot mask her own feelings and biases. One senses that she could not quite see a woman-woman partnership as "whole," as passionate, as capable of being the source of tragedy in the same way as other types of relationships. (Anaïs Nin will also hint at something similar in her diaries, at the "incompleteness" of female/female love.) "What woman would not blush to seek out her amie only for sensual pleasure? In no way is it passion that fosters the devotion of two women, but rather a feeling of kinship." She is fascinated by the story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, the "Ladies of Llangollen," who elope and spend several decades living together. During this time, Butler will keep an extensive journal about her life with "My Beloved," while, to Colette's consternation and fascination, Ponsonby remains a silent partner. Colette so romanticizes the Ladies that she says they run off together as "young girls," when in fact Butler was 39 and Ponsonby in her 20s. While there is all kind of detail about their living arrangements, from gardening, sewing, hosting an array of distinguished visitors, and sharing a bedroom and bed, there is nothing known of their emotional or sexual intimacies other than their obvious devotion to one another. They remain a happy, content enigma to Colette and to the present day.

The book concludes on a more personal note-about jealousy, "the only suffering that we endure without ever becoming used to it." She maintains that "a man never belongs to us" and hints at the unique and not unfriendly relationship two female rivals may have-even rivals who wish to kill one another. When one rival tells Colette all the things that had prevented her from killing Colette in Rambouillet (missed train, stalled car, etc.), Colette says, "I was not in Rambouillet." The relationship between her and her rival becomes more interesting, more revealing, more important, and more affectionate than with the man over whom they duel.

Colette suffered what many turn-of-the-century female intellectuals must have-a society's fear of "masculine" women who are too intelligent, too outspoken, too knowing. When she offers to travel with the roué (apparently as a friend), he says in seriousness, "I only like to travel with women," which, a moment later, is softened by, "You, a woman? Why, try as you will . . ." Even today, there are women who have experienced this.

"This is a sad book," Colette said. "It doesn't warm itself at the fire of love, because the flesh doesn't cheer up its ardent servants." Thurman adds, "This great ode to emptiness was written by a woman who felt full."

The Pure and the Impure is a must read for anyone who enjoys Colette's other writings; it is the most autobiographical of her works. Recommended.

Diane L. Schirf, 1 January 2002.

A lot of people I know do like it, so there's something to be said for that, but I couldn't stand it. I have to say, when I first got it I was excited, just opening up to a random page, it looked chaotic and fascinating. I saw the comparisons to Borges, Pynchon and Nabokov in the reviews and I thought it would probably be an amazing book. Then I read it. The problem with it is, that though Danlielewski took a lot from Borges, Pynchon, Nabokov and Wallace, all of it was superficial. The story lacked a purpose. It was really something more like playing with style, without a good story to tell.

It might be interesting to people looking to disect and analyze something because it's there, but I personally don't think it's worth your time. It has worked as a decent primer for some people to get them into more serious authors like those whose work it's compared to, though, and if you're unfamiliar with authors like Nabakov and Pynchon, you may like it, but if you have read them and liked them, avoid it.

This book, if you'll let it, will consume you. I still have trouble staying inside sometimes (I finished the book about a month ago), and if I think about it enough, I'll get chills.

This is a great book. One of the best things about this book is that you won't find others like it. The style is eclectic and draws you in from the beginning. Not only that you will learn a lot about an assortment of subjects (i.e. mazes, echos,...) Plus the description of the "film" in the book is very interesting and will leave you wanting to know more.
It is a good book for those that don't mind non-sequitors and unconventional storytelling.

Mark Z. Danielewski's "The House of Leaves" is certainly a rare find. It maintains to be funny, sexy, scary, amusing, and beautiful at the same time. A nice blend of Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, The Blair Witch Project, and The Ring, with a style similar to famous authors Stephen King and Dean Koontz, it is, in itself, "a poetic labyrinth" with a story structure that is between an expository text/film review/journal/novel

I came across some references to House of Leaves and was intrigued by the reviews. I became even more interested when my local library told me they didn't have it and didn't have any plans to get it. Hmmmmm. I came home and ordered it, then waited for this masterpiece that people either obsess over or hate entirely to get here. I flipped through it when it arrived to see what all the hype was about. My first impression was that it was a cluster...erm...mess. All of the strange formatting and different fonts made it seem horribly busy and my impression was that someone had gone out of his way to make a statement. Ah, the disappointment.

Not one to give up, I resigned myself to start the book and see where it led me. Only a few pages in (hooked), I made the executive decision to arm myself with those little page-marker sticky notes so I could go back and re-visit things of interest. Superficially, the challenge at first is to develop your own tempo in reading between the story (The Navidson Report) and the narrative. It took a little getting used to but once I got the hang of it, I actually found that it added to the story. This is expounded on further into the book when the strange formatting and page layout comes into play. What I'd thought would be a horribly distracting, PITA gimmick turned out to be an integral part of the story. Yes, in a few places it was a bit distracting. However, in most places it heightened the reading experience and upped the creepy factor exponentially. In some spots I actually found myself holding my breath as I turned the pages, not physically able to read fast enough to keep up with the suspense and dismay that was building as I read. Wow. My copy is littered with those sticky page-markers. Yeah, its that good and I found myself embracing its complexity. It grows on you.

This book has more layers than an onion. There is symbolism and foreshadowing galore, and a multitude of hidden codes within the text. Some folks will only catch the blatantly obvious, but the more astute people will catch the subtle 'secret' codes that have been painstakingly included. Everything in there has been carefully placed for a reason. I found after I read it the first time that the fun of reading it a second time is that you know what happens so you can pay even closer attention to the hidden goodies. Keep some page markers handy as you read so that you can go back and analyze the things that caught your eye on the first read.

When you're finished, I strongly suggest that you visit the HoL forum on the Internet. There are people who have picked this book apart and I guarantee you will be astounded by what you've missed and what others have found.

I loved the interactive experience of this book. It is a highly personal experience for the reader. A lot of the underlying messages and tones (and codes) can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, leaving plenty of room for the book to mean something entirely personal to you as a reader. It is artistic, experimental, and a fun read. I strongly recommend it.