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Eleanor's Reviews > After Julius
After Julius
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How to review a book that has a very upsetting rape scene near the end that overshadows the entire book for me? Worryingly, I can't even tell whether the (female) author is intending the post-rape happy ending to be sincere or not. 1965 was a different world. Many acts considered abuse now were considered commonplace inconveniences then.
This is the only book I've read where I'd give a 'trigger warning'. It's so unexpected and brutal and then he apologises and they plan their wedding in a joyful delirium. The book is excellently structured and its characters are well-drawn. Had I stopped near the end, I'd be raving about its subtle successes. But... then THAT happened, and sitting here in 2019 as I am, nothing else is memorable.
This is the only book I've read where I'd give a 'trigger warning'. It's so unexpected and brutal and then he apologises and they plan their wedding in a joyful delirium. The book is excellently structured and its characters are well-drawn. Had I stopped near the end, I'd be raving about its subtle successes. But... then THAT happened, and sitting here in 2019 as I am, nothing else is memorable.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
September 25, 2019
– Shelved
September 25, 2019
–
Finished Reading
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JimZ
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rated it 3 stars
Aug 24, 2022 03:42PM
Pretty much the way I felt too!
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We've had plenty of evidence throughout the book that Dan is a damaged character with some very creepy attitudes to women (including his own sister), but the disturbing thing about this scene is that the author refuses to give us a moral stance either directly or implicitly, and this can be problematic if we're left trying to decide what the author's attitude to this is. I read this as a very dark story which leaves us thinking that neither of the two sisters are going to be happy or fulfilled by these latest relationships.
