Community Reviews
I'm always wary of people who can't be alone.
I'm not talking about hours but days, weeks... Because only when you are alone with nothing to do (no TV, no phone, no distractions...) to eat along, to walk alone, to go to bed alone... alone but with only your own thoughts... then that is when you'll find out the most about yourself. What makes me wary is... most people can't be by themselves simply because they don't like themselves very much.
Agatha Christie masterfully follows the unfolding of Joan Scudamore's self realization from start to finish. How Joan for the very first time in her 40+ year life have to be alone in the dessert, and for the first time done some self-reflections (again this action can only be done in days, weeks... couple hours won't do much). Even Joan's first few days were nothing but filled herself with delusion, self-assurance and self-congratulation.
Just as her friend Blanche in the beginning of the book said to Joan: " I wonder what you would find out, and I wonder if you even like what you see"
Spoil Alert: She didn't
At the end though when she realized what kind of person she is, and what her actions (which always claimed out of love) have caused those she loves so much pain and misery... just as one of the reviewers said: "it will make you profoundly uncomfortable." And probably ask yourself the same thing: Have I lived like Joan?
This book certainly makes you want to spend more time alone for self-reflection, to exam what you say, do, even how to think... and what it does, how it effects the people around you (not just loved ones, but even strangers).
A good start is I always try asking myself this whenever I "think" I've done something nice: "Is it Kind? Or are you just trying to be Nice to make YOU feel better about yourself?"
I'm not talking about hours but days, weeks... Because only when you are alone with nothing to do (no TV, no phone, no distractions...) to eat along, to walk alone, to go to bed alone... alone but with only your own thoughts... then that is when you'll find out the most about yourself. What makes me wary is... most people can't be by themselves simply because they don't like themselves very much.
Agatha Christie masterfully follows the unfolding of Joan Scudamore's self realization from start to finish. How Joan for the very first time in her 40+ year life have to be alone in the dessert, and for the first time done some self-reflections (again this action can only be done in days, weeks... couple hours won't do much). Even Joan's first few days were nothing but filled herself with delusion, self-assurance and self-congratulation.
Just as her friend Blanche in the beginning of the book said to Joan: " I wonder what you would find out, and I wonder if you even like what you see"
Spoil Alert: She didn't
At the end though when she realized what kind of person she is, and what her actions (which always claimed out of love) have caused those she loves so much pain and misery... just as one of the reviewers said: "it will make you profoundly uncomfortable." And probably ask yourself the same thing: Have I lived like Joan?
This book certainly makes you want to spend more time alone for self-reflection, to exam what you say, do, even how to think... and what it does, how it effects the people around you (not just loved ones, but even strangers).
A good start is I always try asking myself this whenever I "think" I've done something nice: "Is it Kind? Or are you just trying to be Nice to make YOU feel better about yourself?"
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