I felt a little too dressed up.
There was a spotlight shining in my eyes no matter where I sat.
A couple of girls were sick, or had been recently.
Debra and her gallstones!
Juli and all the shit that's been happening with her!
For crying out loud...Jennifer even cliff-noted the book--haha!
It was just a hard month, I think.
And Madame Bovary-- I just didn't get it. I do now. Febe enlightened me to the fact that this novel was originally a series of articles; hence the long, drawn-out plot and the slowly developing Emma Bovary.
As of our meeting, I hadn't gotten as far as her first affair, and all I saw was a discontented spoiled brat, stealing my place as the heroine of a story. The theme of my life, to put it cheerily, has been to make lemonade from the lemons I've been given. I have been fighting as long and as hard (if not longer and harder) as any soldier in the "war on terror" (which so conveniently parallels in time-line the battle for my marriage). And here comes Emma, bringing herself to depression and anxiety because of her choice to not love her husband. Instead, she loves an idea, a fantasy, a thrill of emotion that can only be temporary but which she has mistaken as a feasible way-of-life. She chased the wind! And misses her duty, her opportunity in the present!
My heart is being/has been broken by a Madame Bovary. I hate her; she is a criminal to me!
However...I appreciated her most, had hope for the potential of her character when she was assisting Charles with medical procedures. She was brave, she exhibited skills and know-how. Where did these sudden spurts of character come from?
But then at our meeting, Febe--who might have been the only one to finish the book, was clearly disappointed that we all concurred about Shallow Emma, and didn't even try to put ourselves in her shoes and relate to her.
So I came home with a new fire for the book. After a while, there were things I could relate to...mostly, how weary the soul can get if one is waiting on fantasy, not communicating and thus being misunderstood and unknown.
I just know that although I could eventually see her as somewhat of a victim of the times (arranged marriage, her family situation) her overall passivity and self-centeredness turns me off and I wish I'd never met her. I gained nothing from Madame Bovary (the character). However, I am glad to have read a serialized 19th-century novel, but I confess, I didn't finish... and I'm in no hurry to.
