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gbliss 's review for:
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens
The last novel he actually completed. The pre-Drood novel.
In some ways a study in executing a clever trick: What happens when you hide something in open view? The plot/the puzzle gets resolved a little too miraculously at the end. Sort of feels as if Dickens looked at a calendar and said, "Ooops. My 18-19 month run is almost coming to an end, I better wrap up this up." He then rolls in the Boffins who explain every twist and turn behind the plot resolution that has occurred. That said, the book contains wonderful characters and great descriptions of London and waterfront life at the time. Additionally, the book is very much a critique of the Debtors/Poor House laws of England at the time...something reenforced with the Postscript by Dickens in the version I read. OK, OK, OK, I've convinced myself... I'm adding that fourth star though I wish I could add only half a star. Now to focus on the biography and then, after that, I think Bleak House!
In some ways a study in executing a clever trick: What happens when you hide something in open view? The plot/the puzzle gets resolved a little too miraculously at the end. Sort of feels as if Dickens looked at a calendar and said, "Ooops. My 18-19 month run is almost coming to an end, I better wrap up this up." He then rolls in the Boffins who explain every twist and turn behind the plot resolution that has occurred. That said, the book contains wonderful characters and great descriptions of London and waterfront life at the time. Additionally, the book is very much a critique of the Debtors/Poor House laws of England at the time...something reenforced with the Postscript by Dickens in the version I read. OK, OK, OK, I've convinced myself... I'm adding that fourth star though I wish I could add only half a star. Now to focus on the biography and then, after that, I think Bleak House!