6. To the Lighthouse 7. Love in the Time of Cholera
Title: To The Lighthouse
Author: Virginia Woolf
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) here
My thoughts: So, I've always heard good things about Virginia Woolf, more so since reading Atonement by Ian McEwan for school last year (in which he mimics her stream-of consciousness style). I know a lot of people who are irritated by the fact there is almost no action in this book, but I actually quite enjoyed it. I didn't find this book complusive, or even particularaly easy to read, but I did enjoy it. I'll admit (pleb I am) the extended and complex sentences were a shock to the system after The Virgin Suicides but one re-read normally sorted that.
I have to admit that I didn't enjoy the second part, and didn't enjoy the third nearly as much as I enjoyed the first. I can't quite place my finger on why, perhaps it was because really enjoyed the constantly chaging perspectives of the first part of the book.
It's definately not a light read, but a good one.
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Title: Love in the Time of Cholera
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) here
My thoughts: I was reccomended this book around a few livejournal communities, and I have to admit that after reading the blurb saying the novel "explores love in all its forms" but which mainly focused on the "unrequieted love", I was a bit sketpical. Still, I bought it anyway, and I'm so so glad I did.
It's very dense, in the best possible way. I particularaly enjoyed that it started it wasn't set out chronologically: the opening section with Florentino's declaration of love to Fermina Daza is given more and more depth the further you read into the history between them. It is a love story at heart, but not what you'd typically expect. In fact, the overblown romantics between the two teengers (especially Florentino's illnesses) feel silly, and the relationship they develop by the end of the novel is much more gratifying.
I always think its the mark of a good book which involves you without you realising it, Marquez did that perfectly. By the time I'd read the history of Florentino and Fermina's relationship and are brought back to the starting point of the novel, I was really hoping things would work out for them. By that point, you have enough faith that Marquez won't cash it in for the cheap Hollywood ending.
Up Next: War of the Worlds by HG. Wells.
Hopefully I won't leave it another month before collecting my thoughts and posting.
Author: Virginia Woolf
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) here
My thoughts: So, I've always heard good things about Virginia Woolf, more so since reading Atonement by Ian McEwan for school last year (in which he mimics her stream-of consciousness style). I know a lot of people who are irritated by the fact there is almost no action in this book, but I actually quite enjoyed it. I didn't find this book complusive, or even particularaly easy to read, but I did enjoy it. I'll admit (pleb I am) the extended and complex sentences were a shock to the system after The Virgin Suicides but one re-read normally sorted that.
I have to admit that I didn't enjoy the second part, and didn't enjoy the third nearly as much as I enjoyed the first. I can't quite place my finger on why, perhaps it was because really enjoyed the constantly chaging perspectives of the first part of the book.
It's definately not a light read, but a good one.
__________________________-
Title: Love in the Time of Cholera
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Synopsis:(from amazon.co.uk) here
My thoughts: I was reccomended this book around a few livejournal communities, and I have to admit that after reading the blurb saying the novel "explores love in all its forms" but which mainly focused on the "unrequieted love", I was a bit sketpical. Still, I bought it anyway, and I'm so so glad I did.
It's very dense, in the best possible way. I particularaly enjoyed that it started it wasn't set out chronologically: the opening section with Florentino's declaration of love to Fermina Daza is given more and more depth the further you read into the history between them. It is a love story at heart, but not what you'd typically expect. In fact, the overblown romantics between the two teengers (especially Florentino's illnesses) feel silly, and the relationship they develop by the end of the novel is much more gratifying.
I always think its the mark of a good book which involves you without you realising it, Marquez did that perfectly. By the time I'd read the history of Florentino and Fermina's relationship and are brought back to the starting point of the novel, I was really hoping things would work out for them. By that point, you have enough faith that Marquez won't cash it in for the cheap Hollywood ending.
Up Next: War of the Worlds by HG. Wells.
Hopefully I won't leave it another month before collecting my thoughts and posting.