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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I both liked and didn't like this book. I really enjoyed the wittiness of the narrator and the constant quips against most of the characters in the book. The story started off strong but seemed to lag in the middle before rushing through the end. And I do wonder when did our general vocabulary become so much less eloquent than books pre-20th century made it seem. Overall not a bad book but it did feel like a lot of nothing. I would find this hard to recommend.
I typically like Hawthorne, but I got tired of waiting for something to finally happen in this and what I got wasn't worth the price of admission.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Its been years since my first read of this book. Whew, I am not going to lie, it took alot of energy to get through it. I love Hawthorne's Scarlet letter, but this book just didn't work for me.
A chief complaint of Hawthorne's writing is that he is wordy. I would argue that this wordiness conveys the suffocating nature of the Pyncheon family legacy. It's beautiful writing that takes chances. If Hawthorne gets off the rails in a moment of rapture, it suits the mad euphoria of his character all the more. If his writing wanders like Hepzibah through passage after passage of morose fatalism, then we join her on this painful shuffling word by word. With each character, this wordiness, conveys the weight of complex human experience. Often, Hawthorne blesses us with Beauty and perfect execution, similar to what you would expect from a Darren Aronofsky film.
Every time I read this, I definitely read deeper into the complexity of Hawthorne's story. I really enjoyed it, and loved the vivid characters and unique story that Hawthorne manages to weave into a tale surrounding a house.
I read this book as an adolescent, so I'm not sure I fully captured the essence of the book. If I had time, I'd love to read it again!
Great story, much attention to detail (maybe a little too much sometimes), great writing on a technical level. But something felt lacking to me. Sometimes I wasn’t always engaged, couldn’t understand what was happening, and was wondering what the point of an entire paragraph or more was, although I tend to have this problem with books written pre-20th century so it could just be me. Though billed as a romance, little of that came through to me. Hawthorne seems to love using the narrator as a framing device, which often takes me out of the story because I’m constantly reminded that I’m being told a story. The history of the actual house and what inspired the novel is more interesting to me than the novel itself, I think, but I would also read again. A good read overall, especially after having visited the actual house in Salem.
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Emotional Impact: 2.0
Characters: 3.5
Plot: 3.0
Dialog: 5.0
World Building: 3.0
Gut Enjoyment: 2.5
Characters: 3.5
Plot: 3.0
Dialog: 5.0
World Building: 3.0
Gut Enjoyment: 2.5