book review - shardik
Dec. 22nd, 2003 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadaShardik by Richard Adams
that's right. i finished it. the whole damn thing. it's the longest book on my list until i get to moby dick. if it had been 620 pages of badness, i would have quit. but it wasn't, it was 200 pages of badness. the first part of the book was heavy slogging. there's a bear, it's god, except you know it's not god and people are doing dumb things in the name of god and it's all going to end in ruin and we know this not only because of the VAST AND HEAVY FORESHADOWING, but because it's a fricking enormous bear that kills with a casual swat. but that's just where the book starts getting good. it does end in ruin. all the sudden, the bear isn't god, and then he is in the most marvelous ways, and again he isn't, but that's ok. you see, adams once again pulled off the magic in watership down, but this time you could see the strings and mirrors. the descriptions were wonderful, but he would throw in too many analogies and it felt forced. the first part of the story was way too long, but i would really love to see what happens next. however, the worst problem is that i just did not like the way adams drew his humans. the primitive society he describes for most of the novel does not feel consistent. many characters undergo vast psychological torments and recover in ways that are not so much wonderful, as extremely unrealistic. the last chapter written by someone on the outside of the society looking in was wonderful and i only wish the whole book could have been written from this viewpoint. and yet, there is enough good in this book that i don't regret reading it. i do wish that he'd had a better editor.
next book, already at bat: Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac. my dad got this as part of a summer reading project while i was still in high school. he passed it to me and i think i had the crazy idea that i'd read it in english and then in french. i'm not sure that my dad actually got through the novel, himself. i'm up to page 9 or so and it's growing on me.
that's right. i finished it. the whole damn thing. it's the longest book on my list until i get to moby dick. if it had been 620 pages of badness, i would have quit. but it wasn't, it was 200 pages of badness. the first part of the book was heavy slogging. there's a bear, it's god, except you know it's not god and people are doing dumb things in the name of god and it's all going to end in ruin and we know this not only because of the VAST AND HEAVY FORESHADOWING, but because it's a fricking enormous bear that kills with a casual swat. but that's just where the book starts getting good. it does end in ruin. all the sudden, the bear isn't god, and then he is in the most marvelous ways, and again he isn't, but that's ok. you see, adams once again pulled off the magic in watership down, but this time you could see the strings and mirrors. the descriptions were wonderful, but he would throw in too many analogies and it felt forced. the first part of the story was way too long, but i would really love to see what happens next. however, the worst problem is that i just did not like the way adams drew his humans. the primitive society he describes for most of the novel does not feel consistent. many characters undergo vast psychological torments and recover in ways that are not so much wonderful, as extremely unrealistic. the last chapter written by someone on the outside of the society looking in was wonderful and i only wish the whole book could have been written from this viewpoint. and yet, there is enough good in this book that i don't regret reading it. i do wish that he'd had a better editor.
next book, already at bat: Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac. my dad got this as part of a summer reading project while i was still in high school. he passed it to me and i think i had the crazy idea that i'd read it in english and then in french. i'm not sure that my dad actually got through the novel, himself. i'm up to page 9 or so and it's growing on me.
