[L35]∎ Libro Gratis Green Girl A Novel PS Kate Zambreno 9780062322838 Books

Green Girl A Novel PS Kate Zambreno 9780062322838 Books

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Green Girl A Novel PS Kate Zambreno 9780062322838 Books

I think a lot of young women (young people, really) go through unanchored periods in their 20s. Stumbling around trying to figure out who and what we are, what we want, where we belong. Kate Zambreno's Green Girl focuses on this exact time of life. Ruth, an American in her early 20s, is living in London and working at Harrod's, which she's nicknamed Horrid's, selling perfume. Ruth's insecurities about herself and her place in the world are reflected even in what kind of wares she hocks. She's not assigned to the fancy prestige brands, but rather the celebrity scent of a teenage American pop star.

Ruth is recovering from the dual shocks of losing her mother and the end of an intense, damaging relationship, and is desperately lonely. She's "friends" of sorts with a young Australian woman who lives down the hall in the rooming house she lives in. There's little real connection between them, but at least it's another person to spend time with. Ruth makes some hesitant stabs at new relationships, but between the two men who both treat her as an object in their own way (one by putting her on a worshipful pedestal, and the other as a muse for his own artistic ambition), she can't actually bond with anyone. She knows she's stuck, but has no idea how to free herself.

Green Girl is relatively simple in terms of plot, but I found it challenging in its own way. It's not structured like a typical novel: each section (there are many, I don't believe any are longer than 10 or so pages) is prefaced by a quotation from another author writing about young womanhood. Zambreno's own writing is almost like prose poetry, short interlinked paragraphs that are about as much about the feeling they capture as moving the story forward. It's not even as much a portrait of Ruth as a character as it is a portrait of what it is to be struggling into womanhood in one's early 20s, feeling the openness of one's potential future to be as much threat as promise.

I was initially put off by it and was glad that at least it was short so I wouldn't be spending undue amounts of time on something I found alienating, but eventually I got used to its rhythm and once I got there it was hard to put down. Although she's not a strongly drawn character, Ruth's aching sadness comes across so vividly that watching her stumble and make mistakes is heart-wrenching. It's an odd little book, and its flaws (the lack of character development and story structure) are real, but it has power. I'd recommend it if you're down for something a little less conventional or had a messy time of it in your 20s.


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Green Girl A Novel PS Kate Zambreno 9780062322838 Books Reviews

This novel reads like a song of a lost American shopgirl Ruth, living in London ever hoping to get something else and disappear in the underground clubs she finds men in with her drunken sex kitten pal Agnes.
Ruth paints her pretty face,cuts her blonde hair short,obsesses for fashion in high end department stores, slips into a great depression, and wanders alone in the city streets at night hoping to be invisible.
She loves an ecstasy induced high cuddling with Agnes in their pig sty apartment and is always thinking about HIM...her ex lover.
Ruth doesn't know who she is or wants to be celebrating.This leaves you turning the pages and leaves you always wanting more. It's about coming of age, femininity, sex, drugs, changing jobs,religion,putting a mask on and freedom.
One of my favorite books. I would recommend this to all my friends, if you are on the fence definitely go for it! The author lays the characters bare and really digs into the storyline. Absolutely incredible, such a great read. Incredible.
The story is about a young 20-something American woman, Ruth, who moves to London following a heartbreak, of which the reader is only vaguely informed. In fact, the reader is not really fully aware of most of the "action" in this book; rather, the bulk of this book is snippets of feelings and thoughts. Ruth is going through a dark time, and the tone of the novel reflects her mood perfectly. She is clearly sad and lost, and possible explanations are only gradually exposed. But again, the sad events of her past are only incidentally featured in the story. Her depression holds the story very much in Ruth's present-day life and lingers in every action she takes and every thought she has. She bounces around in a near-aimless existence trying to make sense of her life, and as the reader tries to do the same, the book is really able to make its mark. While reading, this book made me sad. It made me feel sorry for Ruth and sympathize with her but at the same time made me want to pull her up and yell at her to get her life together. I think it's difficult to provoke strong feelings in a reader and this novel does it perfectly. It is a quick read and definitely worth your time.
I liked it. I liked it's awkward, artsy choppiness. Before I read it, I looked at reviews on other sites. Most of them talked about loving and hating Ruth at the same time or just hating her. After reading it, I don't understand all the hate for Ruth. Maybe I don't get it because the things that are hated about her are the things we hate about girls in their teens and twenties and I'm in my twenties so I found her relatable.

It got to me on time.
Both painful and beautiful, this puts words to the pressure surrounding young women and the very real instinct to self destruct. Relatable and strangely comforting to anyone who has ever struggled with metal illness. A great commentary on the overbearing sexualization of young women, a constant pressure that undermines and erroads at the core of self worth.
This novel takes the pedestrian idea of the interior life of the young girl and allows it to soar. The green girl is Ophelia from Hamlet, "You speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstances. " She cannot escape from herself and is doomed to observe herself, usually mercilessly, as she searches for the form of herself in her ideal setting. She lurks ambivalently through the "glow of thingness. Everything so beautiful." It is "porn for impressionable women", women such as she.

I picked this book up after reading a critique in the flawless "Bad Feminist", and I am beholden for the reference. It is wonderful witty book that achieves what so many fail attempting it transports the older woman to her past. It has some sting, but it is a careful sting. I winced at times, but it was a good ache from remembered pain. This is a great book.
I think a lot of young women (young people, really) go through unanchored periods in their 20s. Stumbling around trying to figure out who and what we are, what we want, where we belong. Kate Zambreno's Green Girl focuses on this exact time of life. Ruth, an American in her early 20s, is living in London and working at Harrod's, which she's nicknamed Horrid's, selling perfume. Ruth's insecurities about herself and her place in the world are reflected even in what kind of wares she hocks. She's not assigned to the fancy prestige brands, but rather the celebrity scent of a teenage American pop star.

Ruth is recovering from the dual shocks of losing her mother and the end of an intense, damaging relationship, and is desperately lonely. She's "friends" of sorts with a young Australian woman who lives down the hall in the rooming house she lives in. There's little real connection between them, but at least it's another person to spend time with. Ruth makes some hesitant stabs at new relationships, but between the two men who both treat her as an object in their own way (one by putting her on a worshipful pedestal, and the other as a muse for his own artistic ambition), she can't actually bond with anyone. She knows she's stuck, but has no idea how to free herself.

Green Girl is relatively simple in terms of plot, but I found it challenging in its own way. It's not structured like a typical novel each section (there are many, I don't believe any are longer than 10 or so pages) is prefaced by a quotation from another author writing about young womanhood. Zambreno's own writing is almost like prose poetry, short interlinked paragraphs that are about as much about the feeling they capture as moving the story forward. It's not even as much a portrait of Ruth as a character as it is a portrait of what it is to be struggling into womanhood in one's early 20s, feeling the openness of one's potential future to be as much threat as promise.

I was initially put off by it and was glad that at least it was short so I wouldn't be spending undue amounts of time on something I found alienating, but eventually I got used to its rhythm and once I got there it was hard to put down. Although she's not a strongly drawn character, Ruth's aching sadness comes across so vividly that watching her stumble and make mistakes is heart-wrenching. It's an odd little book, and its flaws (the lack of character development and story structure) are real, but it has power. I'd recommend it if you're down for something a little less conventional or had a messy time of it in your 20s.