Today I want some time to read

I was supposed to read ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin in my first year at uni. I started it, but I never finished because we had scans of the pages in the handbook and it was annoying to read. Since we had loads of other stories and novellas to choose from for our essays, I gave up on it. A few weeks ago, I found it in a charity shop and bought it.

I don’t think it’s a feminist book. If anything, I see it as the ‘female gaze’ - men are ignorant, they don’t understand us, women, and for them, we are naive possessions. A bit of misandry. But I have to admit, it paints a very good picture of how some women were in fact treated at the time. I mean, if that’s what the author felt, who am I to invalidate her feelings?

I really want to read a bit today and probably finish it - it’s a really short book, and it’s written very well.