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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Fun characters but found it difficult to truly care what happened to them most of the time.
Balance of plot felt very uneven with tons of action at the end and little to keep me wanting to read in the middle.
Overall it was okay, but I felt the execution was a little off without much detail hinting toward later plot developments. (2 to 3 stars)
Balance of plot felt very uneven with tons of action at the end and little to keep me wanting to read in the middle.
Overall it was okay, but I felt the execution was a little off without much detail hinting toward later plot developments. (2 to 3 stars)
I got so bogged down with this 26 hour long audio that I looked up wikipedia reviews just to give myself a frame work for the story line. It was much easier to follow after that and I even laughed out loud at the genius of Mr. Roaksmith. Then at the end when the whole story is reveled I agreed with each character completely. Mr. Wegg got what he deserved -and far more than he deserved even. His character makes me shiver. I don't like people who are feel so entitled that they can be stumped on one path and immediately pursue their entitlement down another avenue.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
1.5 stars
Have you ever felt you are about to read 'the book of your life', but then everything ends up going in the wrong direction?
This was my feeling while I was reading Our Mutual Friend, the last complete novel written by Charles Dickens, and honestly, how on earth could you dislike its opening line?:
"In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in."
The first chapter, and especially the first lines of this novel were perfect, even I could say it was one of the most well written chapters I have ever read so far. A man and his daughter, going through the Thames on a boat, working on something that made me feel uncomfortable, but at the same time it was like "I want to know these people right away".
Then, my nightmare reading this book began in chapter 2: a snob family is introduced, a 'new rich' group of people whom I wasn't interested in knowing at all. This disapproval of the new characters was not immediate, but while I kept reading and reading, this family’s behavior was getting really unbearable and my experience really underwhelming.
When chapter 3 began by introducing new characters, a lot of them, it was the first time I asked myself: "should I continue reading this book?" Now, the fact that I ignored my inner voice warning " don't do it", you could consider this as my biggest regret of 2021.
You could say my main problem reading this book was the number of characters, some of them unnecessary to the story, but it was not just this fact. The narrative style was also another problem, and even though it was perfect once I started reading the novel, eventually it ended up being something totally different. The sense of humor of Dickens sounded really unnatural, and no, throughout the whole novel (almost 920 pages) there was a lack of real sense of humor – unlike what I was expecting, I couldn’t even have a moment to chuckle.
Dickens' writing style is good, this is true, but it was not for me at all. The fact that he is using the same adjectives, the same expressions again and again, it was really annoying at some point. And this is curious, because I can't remember this writing style in A Christmas Carol, but in Our Mutual Friend is completely evident that it is presented in the whole book. This was the second thing that certainly put me off.
Besides the unnecessary number of characters, we have unnecessary subplots which are not or slightly related to the main plot. For instance, Mr and Mrs Lammle's story, which was a subplot that made me lose my interest since I wanted to be focused only on the main plot, and furthermore, I never understood why their story was supposed to be important or related to the main plot at some point. In fact, many subplots and many characters were one of my main problems reading this novel since the experience was confusing, difficult to follow, and therefore, quite boring. For the record, this was the first time I fell completely asleep reading a book, and of course, I was sitting as usual.
The ending was an absolute disappointment, which it was not a big surprise at all. As far as I can see, Dickens has written a complete, huge novel here, with a lot of characters, minor stories and the like, but when he tries to end every story, every plot of the novel, it seems like 'time is over', as though the author had to finish everything quickly and abruptly. The ending is disappointing, not because what happens at the end of the book, but because the way it does – from my point of view, it's impossible to feel satisfied with that ending, especially after having read 900 pages or so.
I'm not going to lie you guys, the only reason I continued reading this novel it's because I never lost hope despite the fact that I was struggling with the book quite a bit. Perhaps I should have stopped, perhaps I should realize it was not my moment to read this author, but after all, I can't say I regret it.
I am really sad though, because the nineteenth century, and especially the Victorian age and authors such as Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde, Christina Rossetti, Anne Brontë, and so on, are part of my favorite pieces of literature so far. The fact that Dickens was not for me at all made me realize how different our taste in books can be.
Obviously I'm not giving up on Dickens, even when this time was an unsuccessful attempt, I'm really eager to see the day when my reading experience turns out to be great and I finally can say: "this Dickens (novel) was superb and I've truly enjoyed it".
However, all in all, Our Mutual Friend was definitely one of the most disappointing novels I’ve ever come across, and my biggest disappointment of 2021. Sorry, but it is what it is.
Have you ever felt you are about to read 'the book of your life', but then everything ends up going in the wrong direction?
This was my feeling while I was reading Our Mutual Friend, the last complete novel written by Charles Dickens, and honestly, how on earth could you dislike its opening line?:
"In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in."
The first chapter, and especially the first lines of this novel were perfect, even I could say it was one of the most well written chapters I have ever read so far. A man and his daughter, going through the Thames on a boat, working on something that made me feel uncomfortable, but at the same time it was like "I want to know these people right away".
Then, my nightmare reading this book began in chapter 2: a snob family is introduced, a 'new rich' group of people whom I wasn't interested in knowing at all. This disapproval of the new characters was not immediate, but while I kept reading and reading, this family’s behavior was getting really unbearable and my experience really underwhelming.
When chapter 3 began by introducing new characters, a lot of them, it was the first time I asked myself: "should I continue reading this book?" Now, the fact that I ignored my inner voice warning " don't do it", you could consider this as my biggest regret of 2021.
You could say my main problem reading this book was the number of characters, some of them unnecessary to the story, but it was not just this fact. The narrative style was also another problem, and even though it was perfect once I started reading the novel, eventually it ended up being something totally different. The sense of humor of Dickens sounded really unnatural, and no, throughout the whole novel (almost 920 pages) there was a lack of real sense of humor – unlike what I was expecting, I couldn’t even have a moment to chuckle.
Dickens' writing style is good, this is true, but it was not for me at all. The fact that he is using the same adjectives, the same expressions again and again, it was really annoying at some point. And this is curious, because I can't remember this writing style in A Christmas Carol, but in Our Mutual Friend is completely evident that it is presented in the whole book. This was the second thing that certainly put me off.
Besides the unnecessary number of characters, we have unnecessary subplots which are not or slightly related to the main plot. For instance, Mr and Mrs Lammle's story, which was a subplot that made me lose my interest since I wanted to be focused only on the main plot, and furthermore, I never understood why their story was supposed to be important or related to the main plot at some point. In fact, many subplots and many characters were one of my main problems reading this novel since the experience was confusing, difficult to follow, and therefore, quite boring. For the record, this was the first time I fell completely asleep reading a book, and of course, I was sitting as usual.
The ending was an absolute disappointment, which it was not a big surprise at all. As far as I can see, Dickens has written a complete, huge novel here, with a lot of characters, minor stories and the like, but when he tries to end every story, every plot of the novel, it seems like 'time is over', as though the author had to finish everything quickly and abruptly. The ending is disappointing, not because what happens at the end of the book, but because the way it does – from my point of view, it's impossible to feel satisfied with that ending, especially after having read 900 pages or so.
I'm not going to lie you guys, the only reason I continued reading this novel it's because I never lost hope despite the fact that I was struggling with the book quite a bit. Perhaps I should have stopped, perhaps I should realize it was not my moment to read this author, but after all, I can't say I regret it.
I am really sad though, because the nineteenth century, and especially the Victorian age and authors such as Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde, Christina Rossetti, Anne Brontë, and so on, are part of my favorite pieces of literature so far. The fact that Dickens was not for me at all made me realize how different our taste in books can be.
Obviously I'm not giving up on Dickens, even when this time was an unsuccessful attempt, I'm really eager to see the day when my reading experience turns out to be great and I finally can say: "this Dickens (novel) was superb and I've truly enjoyed it".
However, all in all, Our Mutual Friend was definitely one of the most disappointing novels I’ve ever come across, and my biggest disappointment of 2021. Sorry, but it is what it is.
I read this as part of the Guardian book discussion group for June of 2020. It is definitely too long to try and read in a month. As a result, I'm sure I missed many of the nuances and didn't get time to savour the masterful language. So if you want to take time to read it carefully, definitely give yourself more than a few weeks.
This is the second Dickens book I've read after A Tale of Two Cities, and I was familiar with the story from watching the BBC miniseries. Maybe it was because of watching the movie adaptation (where some parts were cut or sped along) that I found the book very...scattered. There are so many plot lines and characters that it could almost have been a volume of [b:collected short stories|18490|Frankenstein|Mary Shelley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166956574s/18490.jpg|4836639] that slightly overlap. Some of the characters were not my favorites to read about (Wegg and Venus, and especially Mr. Fledgeby) and those bits dragged, while most of the rest of it went surprisingly quickly for 820 pages.
But even if one hated the story, you've got to love Dickens' observations and descriptions of people, such as in Chapter 2, "The Man from Somewhere":
"Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house
in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married... in the Veneering establishment, from the hall-chairs with the new coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with the new action, and upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all things were in a state of high varnish and polish. And what was observable in the furniture, was observable in the Veneerings--the surface smelt a little too much of the workshop and was a trifle sticky."
But even if one hated the story, you've got to love Dickens' observations and descriptions of people, such as in Chapter 2, "The Man from Somewhere":
"Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house
in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married... in the Veneering establishment, from the hall-chairs with the new coat of arms, to the grand pianoforte with the new action, and upstairs again to the new fire-escape, all things were in a state of high varnish and polish. And what was observable in the furniture, was observable in the Veneerings--the surface smelt a little too much of the workshop and was a trifle sticky."
Here is a case where I enjoyed the BBC production much, much, much, much more than the novel. I loved the episodic series so much that I thought reading the actual novel would further deepen my love for the story and its characters. It did not. In fact, I found that 80% of the plot was a waste of my time and that the characters were weaker in this original work than the BBC adaptation. Crazy, right? The book is always supposed to be better than the movie! Not today, in my opinion. Do yourself a favor and watch the series instead. This novel was too long. Dickens, why did you let me down so?
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-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:
Yes
3. 5 - Enjoyable but at the lower end in my rankings of Dickens books. I usually find I get attached to a number of characters in his books but I never got really caught up in any story line.
I found the end of Bella's story line very frustrating, I don't think I would have been nearly as forgiving as her.
Favourite characters - Sloppy, Jenny Wren, Mr Riah
Least Favourite character - Bradley Headstone
Favourite character's name - Sloppy
I found the end of Bella's story line very frustrating, I don't think I would have been nearly as forgiving as her.
Favourite characters - Sloppy, Jenny Wren, Mr Riah
Least Favourite character - Bradley Headstone
Favourite character's name - Sloppy
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated