Sunday, March 27, 2011

Update

With apologies to The Wolves, I'm giving up on Conversation in the Cathedral. I got about sixty pages in before I before I couldn't take it anymore - not knowing who was who, all the random nicknames, the jumps back and forth in time and all over the place, the lack of anything resembling plot. . . Yes, I know this is supposed to be a masterpiece of world literature, but to me, this book is just a mess.

So right now I'm reading Ingrid Winterbach's The Book of Happenstance, which I got as an ARC from Open Letter Press. I also need to read Henrick Ibsen's A Doll House for A Year in Feminist Classics and get my review done of Black Orchid Blues by Persia Walker. All this should keep me busy for awhile.

Also, I found yet another great coffee place:





Aaaaand. . .

Lovecraft and European symphonic metal! My two favorites!



"Call of Dagon" by Therion

5 comments:

Emily said...

A controversial pick this time! I think Sarah will be happy to know she's not alone in her reaction to Conversation in the Cathedral. Even though I ended up really liking the novel in the end, the first 50 or so pages were super frustrating and off-putting to me, so I get where you're coming from.

I've been slacking off on the Year of Feminist Classics picks...not sure I'll get to the April selection either, but I'll definitely write something about the Woolf.

Anonymous said...

Haha, yes I AM happy to find someone to commiserate with. Out of pure stubbornness I pushed 150 pages or so farther than you, but I might as well have abandoned it earlier. I think I could have enjoyed the layers of conversation if I could have kept the characters straight, but with most of them having extra names and different names depending on how far along on the timeline they were...ye gads! So annoying.

Cute coffee joint! :)

Richard said...

E.L. Fay, I can forgive you calling Vargas Llosa's book "a mess" but "no plot"? There's plot all over the place, multiple ones in fact! All teasing aside, no apologies are ever necessary for not liking one of the one Wolves choices. I'm sorry it didn't work for you, though I don't actually understand the complaints I've seen about the difficulty with the names since most of the characters are just referred to by their first and last names (or nicknames) like in any other novel. Cheers!

Eileen said...

Emily: I've been wondering where you were for Feminist Classics! I've already read the Woolf selection too but can't wait to revisit it.

Sarah: Well don't feel bad for ditching it. You lasted a lot longer than I did.

Richard: There was Sparky and Skinny. I couldn't figure out who the hell they were supposed to be at first. And as for "no plot," I had no clue what was happening because everything was so jumbled up and couldn't discern a single coherent narrative.

Vintage Reading said...

I do love the Ibsen. Even better if you can see a performance of it.

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