ipanzica 's review for:

Martin Eden by Jack London

3.0

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While the beginning of the book was interesting and had great plot points, I did find Martin's and Ruth's relationship to be creepy. Before they were dating Martin was basically stalking her and their relationship felt toxic. I feel like both of them were all or nothing and weren't willing to compromise. Martin changed almost everything in his life in order to pursue Ruth yet when he gets into a relationship with her he stops trying to improve himself or make compromises. Ruth is also overly judgmental and also refuses to make compromises. So while I don't think Martin had to submit to every change Ruth asked for they could have had a conversation and made compromises. It was just a bad relationship that gets drawn out to the point that you don't care about either of them in the end. So while this might be a good representation of a bad relationship, it was not fun to read it. I also feel like this relationship dwarfs the plot point of someone with a natural literary talent having no education, then in the process of improving their lives discovers this talent and tries to harness it. That plot point is great but the romance portion of the book did not interest me.