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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
slow-paced
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Initially I was forcing myself to read this book. Logan is hard to relate to in the beginning and rather hard to like. But once the story got going, I was completely sucked in. As I neared the final chapters of the book, I was was loathe to pick it up again - not because I did not want to read it but because I did not want the story to end. I really enjoyed how Logan developed and changed (and in some crucial ways, did not) over his lifetime. But I really appreciated his later in life voice, how Logan engaged very little in self-pity and regrets. The message of appreciating your life as a whole entity, as a combination of the good and the bad, was very meaningful to me. Perhaps if I was from England, I would feel this book was too similar to "Forrest Gump" (which I did not enjoy, btw) but as an American, I really enjoyed getting a small perspective on a different way of life.
Complicated 'human' character is only made complicated through weird sex stuff and sleeping with his dead son's ex-girlfriend who is 16 at 55. She tells him she's 19 though so I guess there's nothing weird about the authors obvious fantasy at all.
It took me a couple of attempts to get into this book, largely because the protagonist - an author, whose life story is told through the pages of his diary - was not the most sympathetic character as a young man. However, I liked him (and consequently the book) more and more as I read further and he started branching out into more interesting diversions than just studying (I am sick of books set in universities), writing (I am getting sick of books about writers), and cheating on his various partners. Very glad I persevered.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At times the character of Logan Mountstuart reminded me of an upper-crust Brit Forrest Gump. Logan often seems to end up at major turning points in history of the twentieth century with very famous people.... His journals reveal a man who is not entirely a likable character but certainly it is a readable book.
3.5, I think.
What good luck for LMS that he managed to write one last reflective, summing entry in his journal right before dying. That he didn't die after reporting on breakfast, or in the middle of a long explanation. That last entry tempers the poignancy (the bad kind?) of the latter half of his life - lives aren't meant to be condensed into 400 pages, reduced to so few events and relationships. It almost made me hope to die before I get so old as to see everyone else leave before me. So thanks, LMS, for concluding with satisfaction and pride in a life well-lived. Otherwise, I might have wanted to die along with you.
Now that I've written that, I'm thinking it will feel overly melodramatic in the morning, but the fact that that's what this book has done to me probably says more than anything I am actually thinking about.
What good luck for LMS that he managed to write one last reflective, summing entry in his journal right before dying. That he didn't die after reporting on breakfast, or in the middle of a long explanation. That last entry tempers the poignancy (the bad kind?) of the latter half of his life - lives aren't meant to be condensed into 400 pages, reduced to so few events and relationships. It almost made me hope to die before I get so old as to see everyone else leave before me. So thanks, LMS, for concluding with satisfaction and pride in a life well-lived. Otherwise, I might have wanted to die along with you.
Now that I've written that, I'm thinking it will feel overly melodramatic in the morning, but the fact that that's what this book has done to me probably says more than anything I am actually thinking about.
A fascinating look at the 20th century through one man's eyes. Because it's written as a journal it really feels like you know the character and we get to see how the events of the time affect an ordinary person (albeit one who meets an astounding number of famous artists and writers.)