Horrible moment of soul-baring honesty...I read this book on my ipad. It was free in ibooks (many books are free on there - you should check, but only if you don't have a graphic on the lower right hand column of your blog that says "I PLEDGE TO READ THE PRINTED WORD" - oh the shame.)
Anyway, perhaps it was because of the guilt associated (although I read The Jungle Book on the ipad and absolutely loved it - for some reason I'd never read the original - but I digress) this book seemed to be unedited. I'll need to do some research but I'll tell you, it was like reading someone's rambling thoughts, and then apparently someone told her "Hey, finish this up today" so she did. The ending was quick, boring, and quite unsatisfactory. It was like watching a Disney Princess movie, and skipping out on the essential 10 minutes of true love at the end, and going straight to the line "and they lived happily ever after." Weird.
But far be it from me to criticize English Lit.
Probably the only time I will ever say this, but it's quite possible that in this instance, the movie is better than the book.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to read the book before & never could get into it. The movie, however, is my favorite movie of all time! The Frances O'Connor one, not the Billie Piper one (blech). I love it so, so, so much. And for some reason, the ending really works the way they do it in the movie. I can see how it wouldn't work as well in the book. Books are longer and more laborious, therefore their endings should be as well.
Okay I need to watch it then. And I love the word "laborious" in this context. If I were to write a jacket cover blurb for this book it would definitely include the word "laborious".
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