Review: Tigers are better-looking
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsThis continues and no doubt concludes the republication of the works of Jean Rhys -- a collection of her short stories from her earliest (1927) ones to those of the '60's. Anything Jean Rhys wrote is unmistakably hers -- not only in its consonance of theme and style -- both are changeless, timeless. And long before the theme became an issue, she wrote again and again of the disenfranchisement of young women -- being nowhere, going nowhere -- the derelict survivors of brief encounters and meaningless attachments, hanging on if only by the thread of a flayed silk chemise, whether it's a call girl or a midinette or a ""Coloured"" from her native Antilles (""I come so far I lose myself on the journey""). They appear in bedsitters and rooming houses, in hospitals, in bars -- a spot of whiskey, or perhaps a nice long rest -- two tablets, ten more. Or a glass of wine ""To a Lost Cause; to All Lost Causes."" Stories like these? Perhaps -- they all speak for the societal deprivation of women who have no real designation (marriage, of course) heightened always by a sense of interior loss and loneliness. How precisely, how universally (from London to Paris to Vienna) it is rendered: ""And everything was exactly as I had expected. The knowing waiters, the touch of the ice-cold wine glass, the red plush chairs, the food you don't notice, the gold-framed mirror, the bed in the room beyond that always looks as if its ostentatious whiteness hides dinginess. . . ."" L'heure bleue -- touch-true.
Review: Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank
User Review - Karen - GoodreadsProbably a 3.5. I thought the quality of the stories varied quite a bit, although I also admire Rhys' prose. But they are almost unremittingly bleak, perhaps not the best read for this time of year. Read full review
Review: Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank
User Review - Melissa Kapow - GoodreadsCompletely bowled over. Her prickly and precarious narratives of women, men, and other women were spot-on; muse as outsider, as underdog. I felt a complete affinity with her voice. Each story was ... Read full review
Review: Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank
User Review - Leann - Goodreadsone of my first books which was read to me by my mother and was used to teach me how to read Jean Rhys and as i grew older i kept on reading it , it was only till i was 12 that i could fully ... Read full review
Review: Tigers Are Better Looking
User Review - Lindsay - GoodreadsShort stories connected by the characters dissatisfaction with their lives, the author captures small moments, emotions and people wonderfully. Read full review
Review: Tigers Are Better Looking
User Review - Moira Russell - GoodreadsThis has one of my favourite passages about reading ever in it: "....one of those long, romantic novels, six hundred and fifty pages of small print, translated from French or German or Hungarian or ... Read full review
Review: Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank
User Review - Anna - GoodreadsI have a great copy of this. It has the craziest cover, all bright pink and psychedelic. Read full review
