"The Yellow Eyes of a Crocodile" is a female group portrait story, focusing on Josephine's mother and daughter trio.
Josephine, a researcher on 12th-century medieval history, had a high degree that did not make her marriage stronger, and her husband cheated on a hairdresser and left Josephine to raise crocodiles in Africa after a failed business. Josephine began a life of raising two daughters alone;
Josephine's sister, Elise, has a glamorous family, a successful husband, and a beautiful personality. However, the marriage between the two inevitably ushered in a low point, in order to win back her husband's heart, while making herself the object of public attention, Elise lied that she was writing a novel set in the 12th century, trying to make her sister catch a knife for her;
Josephine's mother, Unriet, married Marcel, a wealthy man, in order to raise two daughters. But Unriet never seriously managed the marriage, she just wanted her husband to submit to her and be convinced that she could do it. Such an unbalanced marriage, the storm has begun to brew...
In addition to the mother and daughter of Henriet, many other female figures are written in the novel, such as Josephine's girlfriend Shirley, the hairdresser Milena who intervened in Josephine's marriage, and Marcel's cheating partner Josiana...
Such a female group portrait story can easily remind us of Jane Austen two hundred years ago. Jane Austen's group of women is a classic in literary history.
In fact, in terms of background and plot, Caterina Bankol's "Crocodile's Yellow Eyes" and Jane Austen's novels have nothing similar. But the female figures written by the two writers have many commonalities.
We often think of Jane Austen's women as spiritually independent, free, and noble. But in fact, these personalities are only unique to the protagonist, in the novels such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion", most of the women in the books are vulgar, superficial and boring and addicted to materialism, which is the norm in the British upper class at that time.
In CaterinaBankle's "The Crocodile's Yellow Eyes", there are also superficial and materialistic women, such as The Mother and Daughter of Henriette and Elise, and even Josephine's eldest daughter, Ordance, has begun to be contaminated with such a personality.
Josephine, who grew up in this environment, began to reflect on his own life and his marriage.
In many women's novels, women's difficulties are often brought by men, and this "Crocodile's Yellow Eyes" is no exception. But there are some differences in the fact that josephine's difficulties in life do not only come from men, but also from her mother and sister.
On Josephine's path to school, she encountered countless questions and criticisms, often from Unriet, her closest mother. Unriethe never understood why Josephine wanted to learn something "useless", and Unriet had devoted her life to her husband Marcel, and taming Marcel was her life's work. She also wants to pass on these values to her daughter and even her granddaughter.
In the doubts of her mother and sister, Josephine lived to the appearance of others' expectations, and her life was carried out according to the established template of others.
Even Josephine's daughter Ordance could point fingers at her, and Josephine was dating a handsome man, and Ordance asked in surprise, "So why would a handsome man look up to you?" Her dislike for her mother didn't even hide it.
This is the normal state of Josephine's life, her life is again and again denial and questioning, over time, even Josephine forgot her original appearance, forgot what she wanted, forgot how to love and be loved.
The novel portrays Josephine's contradictory and confused life deeply and realistically. Josephine wanted a man, but pushed her lover away; she wanted to write, but hesitated.
In the long period of denial and doubt, Josephine has lost the courage to be herself, she does not know how to start, or even whether she should start.
The cover of the novel "Silent Confession" reads that we spend our whole lives to get rid of the expectations of others and find our true selves.
But in "The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodile", what binds Josephine is not the expectations of others, but the denial and questioning of others.
So the cover of the book reads: How much denial and hurt do we have to go through to become our true selves?
Like many women's novels, "The Crocodile's Yellow Eyes" is a coming-of-age novel, which focuses on Josephine breaking free from the shackles of her family, bravely pursuing herself and pursuing her own life.
When the ego awakens, the numbing life of the past becomes an endurance. The book says that people are no longer living, but slowly exhausting themselves.
At the age of forty, Josephine showed the courage of a brave man to break his wrist, and she finally said goodbye to her past life and ushered in a new life. She has gone through countless detours, but fortunately she has finally met her most complete self, and she wants to live, not to endure life.
In the face of this gratifying growth, the label of gender is no longer important, because not only women need this growth, but men also need a complete self.
But unfortunately, even though there are too many such coming-of-age novels, only a few people can really break their wrists like Josephine. The older people get, the more mature they become, but at the same time, the more they grow up, the more afraid they are of a different way of living, which is an insoluble paradox, as if the greatest meaning of maturity is to learn to endure the existing life.
But the good life is not to endure, like the ending of Anriette, she thinks she tamed her husband Marcel, but Marcel buried Henriette's self-righteous marriage with a cheating and an illegitimate child.
Henriet is pathetic isn't he? She is not ladylike, but her most pitiful thing is not here, but the whole life is based on Marcel's life.
When the marriage is over, Anriyette's life will fall.