lunabee34

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I have to admit that I didn't care overly much for the writing style except in Part 3. Bertha's backstory was much sadder and more cruel than I expected it to be. She is the mirror image of Jane--orphaned, abandoned and mistreated by those who should be family, unloved, sent away to school. There's even a Helen in her life, but they don't become friends like Jane and her Helen. I think I find Rhys's Rochester more monstrous than I was expecting because he does actually love Bertha at one point. He falls for her, and then he listens to gossip and he cheats on her. Totally despicable. I was reading this for pleasure and not taking notes or reading methodically and so the dreamy and disjointed quality of the narrative was at times tedious and confusing, again except in the third section where that style of writing worked perfectly for me. Now that I think of it, I didn't mind the style in the first section which was also narrated by Bertha either; it was only really jarring in the second section where Rochester's voice is no different from Bertha's. This is an interesting companion to Jane Eyre, but I don't believe I will feel compelled to re-read any time soon.



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