Couldn't Finish It

[zia_montrose]

"Moby-Dick is probably second only to War and Peace as a cultural byword for a long, difficult book that unnerves even the most gung-ho readers with its web of digressions and literary and cultural references."
--Shmoop

Ahab's Wife is a perfect companion. It was given to me by a friend, but I couldn't suffer my way through it. Rambly? Yes. Preachy

Comments

[megan29]

Don't know who Shmoop is, and I can't claim to have attempted either book. But from what *I* know, the cultural byword for a long, difficult book is James Joyce's "Ulysses" - at least in English-speaking countries. I believe in France it's Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu". And then there's the newcomer: Wallace's "Infinite Jest" (I don't know what the title refers to, but to me it has always sounded like the author's jest at the expense of the reader).

I believe my husband actually finished "Ulysses" and attempted "Infinite Jest". My husband has huge reserves of patience (which he needs, since he's married to me!).

As for me, I must shamefully admit that I have little patience for good literature, unless it also has a plot. I can't suffer stylistic exercises. I do appreciate the value of a great writing style, but for no more than a couple of pages. After that, all the style in the world can't hold my attention. I just don't see the purpose of a book that bores its audience.

[zia_montrose]

As for me, I must shamefully admit that I have little patience for good literature, unless it also has a plot. I can't suffer stylistic exercises.

I'm with you. Ahab's Wife is largely a stylistic exercise given that it's derivative-fiction of Moby Dick. It gets great praise, but I can't stand how rambly it is. And I don't like the protagonist much at all either. I think I'm supposed to cheer about all the feminism which is intended to counter Melville's male-centric novel, but I kinda want to barf a little instead. I have other gripes about it, like how the author will write a nice bit of symbolism and then have the narrator explain it in a Symbolism For Dummies paragraph right afterward... Oh well, I'll be moving on to something more entertaining now.

I hope you are holding together. I've been on-line very little but you have been in my thoughts.