Review of The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Awakening features a frustrating, unrelatable, though somewhat sympathetic heroine whose story is made entertaining through Chopin’s rich, colorful, page-turning prose.

Replete with words like “befurbelowed” and French phrases, & set within a dreamy picture of 19th-century Louisiana, it moves at a soap-opera pace.

I just couldn’t put it down. The plot is as entertaining as it is stimulating, watching how women’s role in society has both changed and not changed.

It is not a cushy read; the way that characters of color are left nameless and reduced to only descriptions of their skintone is repugnant, and the heroine’s enormous privilege is off-putting. Much of the dialog is comically overdramatic; this may or may not grow on you. But the realism of the slice-of-life passages feels very natural, and was my favorite aspect of the book.

I was thoroughly entertained, but the ending deeply disappointed me. It should have ended differently. Though the way Chopin painted sudden blips of Edna’s memories was pretty poetic.

My copy also included “The Storm”, an absolute classic:

Her firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for the first time its birthright, was like a creamy lily that the sun invites to contribute its breath and perfume to the undying life of the world.

Ayayay! Sapristi! (fans self)