Imagine a world in which everyone you knew was manic depressive. It'd be interesting at times, but for the most part, pretty depressing. Well just about every character in this novel was manic depressive. High as a kite one moment, and down in the dumps the next, making for a book that was interesting at times, but overall just plain depressing. ( )

2½ stars for the audiobook edition narrated by Paul Slack.

I didn't care for this book but if you like D.H. Lawrence, you probably would like this. His writing style & main themes irritate me so my main feeling on finishing this is relief that I am done. The characters don't seem like any people I have ever met & Lawrence has some strange ideas about sex & women...

For me, the most interesting parts were when Ursula Brangwen is working as a school teacher (without any kind of training!). Having taught myself, I was amused that some things apparently never change, such as the principal/headmaster's fear of pushy &/or complaining parents. Other aspects have clearly changed for the better - no more canings! ( )

4/26/22

I took a full semester on D.H. Lawrence and read ALL of his works. The stack of books was taller than me. Luckily, this was the only class I took! The Rainbow is my favorite out of all his works, although I'm at a point in my life where I think I will revisiting the last tales he wrote while living in the Southwest and painting. ( )

I loved Sons and Lovers, and who doesn’t love “The Rocking Horse Winner”? So I figured I would like this one too. The Rainbow follows several members of a family through different generations. They live on a farm in the East Midlands of England. There was something incredibly irritating about this novel. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but as I was reading it, I was inwardly wailing, “Wheeeennn will this be oooover??” There were a lot of men who didn’t know how to interact with others or have real relationships, especially with women, which I guess is stark realism but was frustrating for me to read. Also, I have no problem with florid prose per se, just this wasn’t doing it for me. One highlight was a grisly alcoholism-related fatal farming accident.

The last family member was a young woman, Ursula, who has a bleak and depressing relationship with another women. You would think I would like that part but I think it was too dark for me. Then she has a bleak and depressing job as a teacher at a brutal school, which degrades Ursula so much that at one point she just loses it and starts hitting a student. And she has a bleak and depressing relationship with a man. Apparently I have blocked out what happens in the end.

Luckily, when I complained to my brother about this elusive annoying quality in The Rainbow, he told me that Kate Millett had gotten to the bottom of D.H. Lawrence in her legendary book Sexual Politics. So, here is what your auntie Kate has to say:

Millett explains that Lawrence is suffering from womb envy, which I would back her up on, and that the “new woman” (like Ursula) intimidates him. She points out that the chapter where Ursula has an affair with another woman is called “Shame,” which I actually didn’t even notice. (Sometimes I am so steeped in my own attitude that I can’t even imagine what the author intended, which has advantages and drawbacks.) Millett also paid attention to what happened at the end of the novel, unlike me, which was: Ursula fails her university exams and becomes a contented housewife. Millett chalks up the irritating quality of The Rainbow to an underlying sexist oinker agenda. BTW, I am not supposed to be reviewing the books of 1969, but Sexual Politics is nothing like what I expected. I had no idea that it was mostly literary criticism!

Anyway, I’m not sure if I can handle Lawrence’s sequel, Women in Love, but I am intrigued by the 1922 offering Aaron’s Rod. With a title like that, what could go wrong? ( )