Monday 12 July 2010

Bloggers Book Club Review: The Children's Book, by AS Byatt

Well, I have finally admitted defeat. I just couldn't do it. It's not that I didn't enjoy this book, I just found it incredibly wordy and over-descriptive. I should say that I did give up at an early stage of the book, which is very unlike me, but it was taking so long to read that I could only read a few pages at a time. I liked the idea of the story, but I was bogged down by the incredibly lengthy words, many of which were completely alien to me. I figured if I was really going to "get" the story I was going to have to invest in a dictionary! I was constantly forgetting who was who, and it really hindered my enjoyment of the book.

So I will be keeping it on my bookshelf for now, in the off-chance that I'll have time at some stage to get into it properly, but it won't be for a while, as I'm off now to read The Poisonwood Bible !

You can find the other members of the Bloggers Book Club here. Hopefully they will have had more success with The Children's Book!

4 comments:

  1. Jen, you described my experience with the book perfectly. Mine is on my shelf as well, I do hope to return to it but maybe in the winter!

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  2. HI Jenny, and there I was thinking you had finished it! I think you are in the majority, I've about 150 pages left and am determined to finish it but I totally agree with you, tis v hard to keep track of who is who

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  3. Snap! I felt the same and couldn't make any headway there. I wrote a bit about it over on my blog if you want to see it. just about sums up my feelings on it. Got hopelessly lost with the characters and couldn't face the effort it required to continue with it. Back with Barbara Kingsolver's new book and loving it! And the Poisonwood Bible to be revisited for July is a delight.
    All the best, Catherine.

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  4. TOTALLY agree! I tried this book months ago & couldn't get past about page 50. I figured there were loads of books out there I'd enjoy so much more & I would go enjoy them. I was a bit dissappointed, as enjoy reading about the Arts & Crafts period, but, whew! it was a relief to stop soldiering thru' the dense writing & 100s of characters! {and, boo :( the cover was so pretty!}

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