Monday, August 30, 2010

Women Who Run With The Wolves



I've never struggled with a book as I did with this one. As I start each new chapter, Clarissa Pinkola Estes' use of folktales and her interpretation of the universal and profound themes hidden underneath the layers of seemingly simple stories assured me that I was absolutely right when I decided to read this book. I even get the feeling that the remarkable idioms the writer highlights will help me better enjoy the novels I read, and the movies I watch.

But after she has highlighted and reviewed every lesson that could possibly be acquired from the literary and mythological archetype of the "wild woman", and instead of moving on to the next chapter/story, Estes insisted on squeezing in a few more pages of Jungian psychoanalysis jargon and talking about a couple more  remotely related lessons, that the book would have been much more effective and enjoyable without. 

So basically, I've decided to stop this self-torture and I will return the book to the library right away. Well maybe as soon as I finish this next story.

By the way, my favorite quote from the book is:

"Tears are a river that takes you somewhere…Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace better."

So dear family, please stop making fun of me for crying while watching movies, listening to songs, reading books, dicing onions,.....