Anybody else struggle with this? I am dragging myself very slowly through to the finishing line - book group choice, wouldn't you know, and no excuse as we've had two months over the summer to read it. And I'd swear it grows 50 pages longer on the bedside table every night ... why does every mediocre novel have to be so long these days? I thought it was going to be about salvaging Renaissance paintings after the war ... but that barely features, and the only interesting character disappears until p191 by which time I was thoroughly bored with the rest of them. 'Moving, wise, poetic and funny,' said the Daily Mail. 'Contrived, over-blown and doesn't know when to stop,' is my verdict. Oh, for a savage red pen to cut out the adjectives!
So glad you’ve posted this. I had two gos at it but finally gave up. The annoying lack of punctuation irritated me and I didn’t care about the characters. I thought I’d missed something as there’s such a lot of hype. Glad I’m not alone. Elizabeth
ReplyDeleteEverything irritated me, Elizabeth. The punctuation (I mean, why???? why do they do this?). The one vaguely-interesting character has disappeared. And the slow, plodding pace ... I feel as if I have lived the wretched book in real time! Will it ever end?
ReplyDeleteI often wish we could re-brand book club as a supper group and forget the books!
I haven't tried this but that's so often my reaction to trendy books that are showered with praise!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning. Argh.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if the reviewers read the same book, Julia!
ReplyDeleteIt's gone back to the library, Pam - so glad to see the back of it!
When I started this book I thought it was going to be a good read. However, I gave it up as I thought it descended into some mid-century Eastenders-type soap opera so I gave it up. I really don’t feel that I have missed out!
ReplyDeleteYou have summed it up brilliantly, Mrs M - "mid-century Eastenders soap" describes it exactly! And it felt like it had been running for years!
ReplyDeleteBook group tore it to shreds ... apart from the person who chose it, everybody hated it. We don't hold back after a few drinks!
Reading this again, I realised that I'd actually read Still Life (for my book group!) and found it so unmemorable that I'd forgotten it! And this was only a few months ago... Worrying... I remember (now) finding it totally unconvincing.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand, Pam - fading from my mind very fast! Must say something that nobody is jumping to its defence.
ReplyDeleteYes it is one of the most boring books I have ever read and like you I ploughed on with a lot of skip reading. A complete waste of time.
ReplyDeleteComplete nonsense and a waste of a potentially good theme. It was a book group choice but most us gave it the thumbs down. However, it did prompt us to read Forster's Room with a View which came as a treat.
ReplyDeleteHello, Rowantree. Oh, the things we suffer for book groups! But a treat indeed to read Room with a View for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI've read and abandoned at least three dull novels this summer. I'm starting to think that the Guardian no longer employs objective book reviewers.
ReplyDeleteIt's ages since I've found something really compelling with that 'stop the world - I can't put it down' quality, Nicola. Rcently I've reverted to some old comfort reads like the Provincial Lady.
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