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When the World Was Steady

claire messud

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In this highly acclaimed novel, life isn’t all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy’s marriage to an Australian man ends, she flees her home in Sydney to “find herself” on the island of Bali—only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister, Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, she follows her aging mother’s advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.


“A novelist of unnerving talent.”—New York Times Book Review


“[Messud] has the daring and assurance to take on Iris Murdoch–like questions about goodness and truth.”—The New Yorker


“Beautiful. . . . [Messud] has the imagination, the craft and the understanding of human nature to write about anything she chooses.”—Chicago Tribune

270 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28,1994
Literary awards
pen/faulkner award for fiction, 
Places
london england, bali, 

This edition

Format
270 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 1995 by Granta
ISBN
9780964561106
ASIN
0964561107
Language
English

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About the author

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claire messud

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Claire Messud is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel The Emperor's Children (2006).

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
39(39%)
4 stars
27(27%)
3 stars
34(34%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
shoujoboy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I listened to it through Hoopla. I want to say this was quiet, but that sounds like it was boring, which it wasn't. But it is quiet. It's Messud's first novel. Takes place in Bali, London, and the Isle of Skye in the mid-90s. Estranged sisters Emmy and Virginia have never been close. Emmy vacations in Bali, having left home in her youth to marry an Australian, from whom she is now divorced. Virginia stayed home with their mother, and became a born again Christian. Their mother attempts to reunite them. Each of the sisters explores her life in her own way.
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skualninja
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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It wasn't as good as The Emperor's Children but I still enjoyed her rich descriptions. I thought, by the end, that she also got to the heart of the sister relationship. Painful.

My favorite parts were her descriptions of an upper-middle class white woman, Emmy, trying to "find herself" in Bali. I think it's fascinating how wealthy (mostly white) people, proud of their unrooted-ness and modern sense of autonomy, inevitably travel to / and irrevocably alter extremely rooted and traditional societies where family groups typically stay together, people don't travel extensively, and people maintain ancient religious and cultural practices i.e. Tibet. These modern, wealthy, secular, independent people, proud of having travelled all over the world by themselves, find it fascinating and meaningful to observe and participate in the ordinary lives of people who have lived in just the opposite way. That's interesting to me, it's as if meaning can only come from rootedness, so we must observe someone else's commitment to a place or a way of life in lieu of our own.

I read an article a week or two ago in Slate about some guy in Brooklyn who decided to be "Married by the Masai" even though its all more or less a photo-op from his point of view. Anyway, a phenomena that I think Messud captured and honestly and fairly explored. The title, When the World Was Steady, refers to the time in Bali before whites came. Anyway, worth reading.
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ShaIIot
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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If you would like to read about two sisters that are hopeless and hopelessly disconnected to themselves and each other who travel to two very different islands to discover that they are indeed hopeless and hopelessly disconnected to themselves and each other, this is the book for you. It’s like the author is a Dementor sucking your soul out of your face through the eyeballs you are reading with.
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backfire96
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Un roman qui mêle la dérision et l'épouvante, et qui dénonce l'inconscience barbare des humains à consumer inexorablement la planète.
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06blackheart
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Deux soeurs vieillissantes que la vie a séparé et qui dans deux hémisphères différents traversent une crise existentielle. Entre Bali, Londres et l'Ecosse, un roman doux, amer, drôle, lucide et sans espoir.
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Lafeyer
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I sometimes give up on a book in the first 50 pages, but I rarely give up 2/3 of the way through. I just couldn’t like or relate to any of the characters: not Emmy, not Virginia, not their mother. There wasn’t enough back story to help me understand any of them much less feel invested in what happened to them. I kept waiting for it to come, but it didn’t. So I gave up. I liked Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, but not this one.
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azko_licious
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I like Claire Messud's writing. It makes you stop and think. This is only the second book I've read of hers. I chose it because I'm going to Bali for the first time in a couple of weeks and wanted to learn more about the culture/what to expect. This is fiction, but the description of places seems grounded in experience. It was an interesting tale of two sisters principally - and by association - their mother. Of women ill at ease with their life or of having their beliefs shaken. One sister is a recent divorcee who chooses to escape to Bali to "find" herself. The other sister - unmarried and living with their mother - is a devout Christian - who faces a nervous breakdown and confronting challenges to her faith. It is a tale of strangers in a strange land and how we deal with the unfamiliar. I'm probably being a tad mean giving it 3 stars. I find the whole star thing a bit inadequate really. I don't want you all rushing out and buying the book. It all depends what you're looking for in a read. This might be just your cup of tea or drive you a bit mad. I borrowed it from Brisbane City Council Library.
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mloveys
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This Claire Messud's first novel & is well written, especially as to place & mood, as it follows 2 sisters from London who drift their own ways- Virginia never marrying, working in a clerical role until she is forcibly made to take time off, and seeks refuge looking after her mother & in religion & the spiritual rewards of suffering, until she comes, when seeking spiritual advice, upon her minister making homosexual love to a member of the congregation, which makes her give up her religious affiliation, but not her search for comfort in God. Her younger sister Emmy After marrying a successful Australian businessman, moves to Sydney. She has a daughter Pod who is rebellious & decides to get married, just after Emmy breaks up with her husband who has taken up with Dora, a friend of Emmy. She decides to escape to Bali where she encounters a cast of strange characters-including Australian expats, drug & antiquity smugglers, and various locals, in a paradisial setting whose atmosphere is beautifully conveyed. At the same time Virginia & her mother Melody take off for the island Skye in Scotland to revisit Melody's childhood home she hasn't seen in many years, the dreary rain-sodden atmosphere with dismal food & accomodations being presented extremely well. Neither sister benefits from these adventures. Their reunion in Sydney on the occasion of Pod's wedding establishes that they have not gained insight into themselves or the distance of their relationship. It is a somewhat despondent read.
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