You may not have noticed how long it has been since I have posted regularly. This is due to two factors: 1) lack of time and 2) lack of subject matter. There are, after all, only so many days that one can write about dirty dishes in the sink! My mom has started a new blog for us (the Slade-clan) to post book reviews/recommendations. But that takes away one of my own potentially phenomenal blog entries, so I'll have to post this in both places.
And the book is (drum roll, please)...
What can I say?
Admittedly I chose the book based on the movie trailers playing on television these days. The movie is rated-R, so I won't be seeing that! No one said I couldn't read the book, though...
Initially I absolutely loved this book. The writing was beautiful and captivating. I was excited by the way McEwan took me inside of each character with such exactitude. His phrasing struck a chord, and I felt as though he knew me, and was somehow summarizing my own everyday thoughts and experiences through a make-believe, much more exciting, much more captivating, romance. And that, my friends, is what I read for!
Then came Part II.
Suddenly I found myself reading an historical fiction based on the English army's retreat out of France in the early days of World War II. Okay, I thought, I like historical fiction. World War II fascinates me. But gone were the side-by-side varying perspectives of a day, and I missed them. Gone were the personal insights and character motivations which had so beautifully moved the story before, and I felt...well...lonely.
Part III didn't bring me back, either. And the "epilogue" lost me all together.
I'm still a little lost, two days after finishing the book, because, quite frankly, it didn't end correctly. To my way of thinking, it didn't even end. It just got over.
I can't say more because it would be such a spoiler for those of you who might still like to give the book a winning try. I do think that the movie will be wonderful because the right kind of story is in there. The kind of story that makes this an ever so familiar a feeling to me:
"The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse. Her reverie, once rich in plausible details, had become a passing silliness before the hard mass of the actual. It was difficult to come back."
Atonement, page 72.
I can't wait until it's on TV!
Admittedly I chose the book based on the movie trailers playing on television these days. The movie is rated-R, so I won't be seeing that! No one said I couldn't read the book, though...
Initially I absolutely loved this book. The writing was beautiful and captivating. I was excited by the way McEwan took me inside of each character with such exactitude. His phrasing struck a chord, and I felt as though he knew me, and was somehow summarizing my own everyday thoughts and experiences through a make-believe, much more exciting, much more captivating, romance. And that, my friends, is what I read for!
Then came Part II.
Suddenly I found myself reading an historical fiction based on the English army's retreat out of France in the early days of World War II. Okay, I thought, I like historical fiction. World War II fascinates me. But gone were the side-by-side varying perspectives of a day, and I missed them. Gone were the personal insights and character motivations which had so beautifully moved the story before, and I felt...well...lonely.
Part III didn't bring me back, either. And the "epilogue" lost me all together.
I'm still a little lost, two days after finishing the book, because, quite frankly, it didn't end correctly. To my way of thinking, it didn't even end. It just got over.
I can't say more because it would be such a spoiler for those of you who might still like to give the book a winning try. I do think that the movie will be wonderful because the right kind of story is in there. The kind of story that makes this an ever so familiar a feeling to me:
"The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse. Her reverie, once rich in plausible details, had become a passing silliness before the hard mass of the actual. It was difficult to come back."
Atonement, page 72.
I can't wait until it's on TV!
3 comments:
Hmmm. To read or not to read, NOW that is the question. I guess I'll just go take a nap!
I put a hold on it, in fact, 3 holds on the book in various formats. It will likely be awhile before it comes in, but I'm anxious to see if my evaluation matches yours.
Are you going to post your book comments on the Slade BookBlog? If you don't, I'll copy them there.
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