On a personal level, this book rings too true for me, and I'm mindful that my opinion could be biased towards stressing its merits while remaining blind to the shortfalls.
I believe that the strength of the book is derived from Miller's keen and compassionate observation of her clients ("patients" in the old terminology), as well as the attention devoted to the literature of both psychological studies and biographical materials. While the word "Gifted" may preclude potential readers from identifying with the narratives of childhood, what Miller meant really was the "Desirable, but Uncared for" -- children who were desired for their attributes that satisfy the craving of the parents, but who weren't respected as individual human beings, whose right to be valued as such comes with no conditions attached. Their "gift" is their vulnerability.
A unifying theme of the three essays is the concept of mourning. Unmourned loss seems …
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Review of 'The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
On a personal level, this book rings too true for me, and I'm mindful that my opinion could be biased towards stressing its merits while remaining blind to the shortfalls.
I believe that the strength of the book is derived from Miller's keen and compassionate observation of her clients ("patients" in the old terminology), as well as the attention devoted to the literature of both psychological studies and biographical materials. While the word "Gifted" may preclude potential readers from identifying with the narratives of childhood, what Miller meant really was the "Desirable, but Uncared for" -- children who were desired for their attributes that satisfy the craving of the parents, but who weren't respected as individual human beings, whose right to be valued as such comes with no conditions attached. Their "gift" is their vulnerability.
A unifying theme of the three essays is the concept of mourning. Unmourned loss seems to compel parents to fulfil their early unsatisfied (but then legitimate) needs in their own children (which is now by no means legitimate, or even possible any more). They thereby perpetrate toxic parenting upon the next generation, rob the children of their childhood, and the vicious cycle repeats. Only profound mourning can break this cycle. To mourn is to bury the axe that grinds in the heart, to say farewell the impossible paradise that never was, and to see world, life, and other people as they are after penetrating the veil of longing.
Of course, merely knowing this isn't enough. Many of the parents "know", but the knowledge is not embodied. The conflicted parents may not have done harm by active malice, but by ignorance and negligence about their own inner conflict and outward contradictory behaviours.
No parent is perfect, but more need to be good enough.
My only complaint is not directed towards the author herself, but to the unfortunate compromises she had to make. In order to get published and taken seriously by the old boys' club, Miller had to resort to shoehorning in those references to the old, and now increasingly obsolete, theories and terminologies, which she acknowledged in the preface to a later edition. One can read the book without loss of vital information if one ignores the references to "Œdipal", "drive theory", "orality", "anality", or "perversion", etc.
Zoë Camille rated Trauma and recovery: 5 stars
Review of "The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose (S.F. Masterworks)" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In her shorter pieces, Ursula K. Le Guin blends her insights into the psyche and her tranquil, compassionate observations of the human condition with expressions of emotional variety, wit, and unbridled imagination. Compared to her longer novels, the short stories allow her greater freedom and diversity in the writing style.
Zoë Camille rated Illness as Metaphor: 3 stars
Review of 'Briefing for a Descent Into Hell (Vintage International)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I guess in the time of the book, the word "neurodiversity" hadn't been coined yet. But this book, with its experimental form and somewhat taboo topic, reads like a compassionate but tragic apology for neurodiversity. It's tragic, for as we follow the hero's journey we see the Normal as it is: a kind of censor that compels us to discard the spontaneous emergence of values rooted from exactly the Normalcy itself, and the hero is at odds with this compulsion. It shows the inherent oddity of the Normal: that it is a double bind, forbidden to contravene but at the same time impossible to comply with. We survive, when we accept it as our own; but we grow, when we see it as the double bind it is.
In the former case, it means surrendering; and in the latter, evolving. And in either case, we suffer the loss of what …
I guess in the time of the book, the word "neurodiversity" hadn't been coined yet. But this book, with its experimental form and somewhat taboo topic, reads like a compassionate but tragic apology for neurodiversity. It's tragic, for as we follow the hero's journey we see the Normal as it is: a kind of censor that compels us to discard the spontaneous emergence of values rooted from exactly the Normalcy itself, and the hero is at odds with this compulsion. It shows the inherent oddity of the Normal: that it is a double bind, forbidden to contravene but at the same time impossible to comply with. We survive, when we accept it as our own; but we grow, when we see it as the double bind it is.
In the former case, it means surrendering; and in the latter, evolving. And in either case, we suffer the loss of what we construct as the "identity", perhaps followed by mourning. This is the price that must be paid no matter what.
Perhaps, if we read it this way, the ending may not seem that tragic. There is some ambiguity about how the hero ultimately turns out. The text doesn't rule out a subversive reading and extrapolation.
The style is sort of close to James Joyce's Ulysses or John Gardner's Grendel. It shifts between various "genres" such as stream-of-consciousness, magic realism, play, epistolary novel, tacky Eastern-bloc propaganda war-time romance, contemplative essay, and conventional fiction with a third-person omnipresent reliable narrator. And it's not divided into chapters. I guess this is part of the amorphous metafiction parallel to the text (if you read the book you'll see what I mean by "parallel") -- to heck with the walls that divide genres, whether they're genres of literature or of humans.
Zoë Camille rated Molloy: 3 stars

Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Molloy is a novel by Samuel Beckett first written in French and published by Paris-based Les Éditions de Minuit in …
Zoë Camille reviewed Selected poems by Mark Strand
Review of 'The collected poems of Theodore Roethke.' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It would be very difficult to reduce the reading experience to star-rating for this diverse collection of from the career of the important poet. I am just very grateful for having discovered him. On an admittedly superficial level, I was fascinated by the imagery and atmosphere of his American Midwest, where I've never been anywhere close to IRL. I was also amazed at his ability to dissolve my sense of deliberate attention, while keeping the flow of ideas present because his language was so precise. On top of it, his rhythm made many pieces very memorable and pleasant for recitation. Not to mention his sense of humour.
Zoë Camille reviewed Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus
Review of 'Algerian Chronicles' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Thought-provoking for reflecting on (the failures in) history in our current era when we're faced with greater division of opinions & rhetorics, erosion of human rights and freedom, terrorism, and inequality.
A good film recommended for the readers is the 1966 film "Battle of Algiers" which depicts war atrocities and terrorism in the semi-documentary style.
There appears to be some minor translation defects.
Zoë Camille rated The Heart is a lonely Hunter: 5 stars

The Heart is a lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the debut novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 …
Zoë Camille reviewed Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante
Zoë Camille rated Mans Search For Meaning: 5 stars

Mans Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration …
Zoë Camille rated Britten: 4 stars
