Greetings, fellow readers! I, like Olaf, am overjoyed that summer is finally here! The semester is over, final grades are in, and now it's time for me to dive into my summer reading stack. Here's a quick overview of what I've read so far this summer:
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. This account of a Victorian era prostitute's ascent through the social strata of London promised to be an excellent read, at least for the first couple hundred pages. The vocabulary is lush and descriptive and the writing so mesmerizing I found myself immersed in the book for hours at a time. However, the story bogged down after a while in the minutiae of the characters' inner lives. I realize that's precisely what a novel is supposed to be about, but all the characters except Sugar (the prostitute) and Emmeline Fox (who doesn't get a lot of narration time anyway) were thoroughly detestable. As anyone who's ever been to the movies with me will attest, I do not like whiny characters, and this novel, alas, was full of them.
Conclusion: A good book, but not one I'd leap out of my chair to recommend to a friend.
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin. This one came to me last summer from an excellent recommender, but as the book is nearly 800 pages long, I had to wait until this summer to start it. It's the story of an Italian alpine veteran of World War One, and it reads a lot like A Farewell to Arms, only without the misogyny. The main character's reminiscences have a more Romantic bent as well, which I can appreciate. I'm about a quarter of the way through this delightful book--it's one I'll enjoy reading slowly.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I read her first novel, A Northern Light, last summer at the recommendation of my friend Elli. It was ok, but Revolution is better. Perhaps that's because the plot centers around one of my most cherished dreams: a young girl finds a diary from the past hidden away and commences to solve the mystery of its origins and contents. In this case, protagonist Andi is a musician who travels to Paris to work on her senior thesis. The diary she discovers is from the time of the Revolution and the Terror, which just so happens to be the very period she is researching for her project. I just started the book yesterday, so the mystery is still in its early stages, but I am excited to know what happens.
Not a bad list for my first week back home! Stay tuned for more updates and reading adventures this summer.
Until next time,
Anna
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