Reading update!

[heliopausa]

Half-way through War and Peace, and finding it pretty fascinating - not just in itself (oh, but the flaws!) but as a major and influential nineteenth-century artefact.

Comments

[puddleshark]

You almost... almost tempt me to buy a copy of War and Peace! Maybe one of these days when I am in the mood for Big Things.

I will definitely have to re-read The Dispossessed though. I remember loving it when I first came across it...

[moon_custafer]

Kind of spoiler ---

If you're already noticing the problems with the female characters, you're really not going to enjoy Epilogue I, in which any character development they've had gets destroyed by married life. I'd been enjoying the second half of the novel (all the plot setup finally pays off), and when I got to the fund I felt like Tolstoy had personally kicked me in the stomach.

[heliopausa]

Is "fund" a spoiler or a typo? (Pierre sets up a fund for PTSD combatants of all sides; Helene steals the capital and runs away to Mauritius with anatole; Natasha runs a singing cake stall to refill the coffers.)

There's been nothing but problems with the female characters as far as I've got. It's no-qualms a Major Work, and he's intermittently a great writer, but it's infuriating to see him being so slipshod with the things/characters he thinks don't matter. I'm glad to hear about the plot pay-off, though. :)

[moon_custafer]

Typo for "end." That said, your ending is better and much more in character for all concerned.

I admit, this is a novel that tempts one to AUs, including the dreaded coffees hop AU (because for one thing, I like the idea of Napoleon as a big coffee chain moving into the neighbourhood.)

ETA: "coffees hop" was autocorrect striking again.

[asakiyume]

My memories of War and Peace are just momentary flashes. I remember like three scenes, and one overall plot arc. But the three scenes that I remember, I loved. I agree with moon_custafer about the outcome for married female characters (well, I only remember one, but), though.

I haven't read The Dispossessed, but it sounds intense. As a young person, I tried and bounced off of The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World Is Forest (I think I was too young to understand them), but I liked Rocannon's World. I liked the second Earthsea book, too: The Tombs of Atuan.

[heliopausa]

I loved The Left Hand of Darkness - I don't know when I read it, but it was a long time ago. Not The Word for World is Forest, though -it seemed a bit laboured, or obvious or something. The Tombs of Atuan is my favourite of the Earthsea books - the cold airs blowing through the pitch-dark labyrinth, and the even colder, darker, more labyrinthine culture which has trapped Arha - brilliant! (and even better, of course - though horribly sad - her finding her way to be free from it.)

I'll be braced for the married-life outcomes - though it's hard to see how he could do worse by them than he has done already!

[wellinghall]

I haven't yet read W&P, but we have a short holiday and a long holiday coming up, on both of which we need to travel light(ish); so I may get a Kindle copy.