I think my low attention span did me in on this one.
I did the audiobook thing (unabridged so I can still say I read it) which had it's advantages with regard to pronunciations but did nothing to beef up the action. Plus you can't "skim."
I wish I could say this book made me wish to read all those classics I avoided in my misspent education but... not so much. By the end of the book I'd have liked to bring Pip either up or down "by hand."
However, there was one "hold on, rewind, what was that?" point in the book for me:
Chapter 4
I fully expected to find a Constable in the kitchen, waiting to take me up. But not only was there no Constable there, but no discovery had yet been made of the robbery. Mrs. Joe was prodigiously busy in getting the house ready for the festivities of the day, and Joe had been put upon the kitchen door-step to keep him out of the dust-pan - an article into which his destiny always led him sooner or later, when my sister was vigorously reaping the floors of her establishment.
"And where the deuce ha' you been?" was Mrs. Joe's Christmas salutation, when I and my conscience showed ourselves.
The catch phrase of my third favorite character in Family Guy (behind Brian and Lois, of course) is Dickensian? Perhaps even pre-Dickensian?
Stewie, I hardly knew ye.
3 comments:
i know you're an audiobook guy, which is fair. trust me, it took me QUITE some time in this book to finally get in a groove and want to keep reading. for awhile, it was out of sheer ego and because i suggested this book club.
i just kept going ... why are all of these things so random? isn't anything going to tie together? why do they keep jumping around? this is so bizarre and unconnected and sucky.
so, it's not just your ADD, yo. i was struggling for a time. and i just couldn't decide what i thought about pip. i thought he was a big asshole for fucking off about joe and biddy, but i thought he did right about provis. i really liked that he and herbert became such friends and his relationship with wemmick seemed strong and worthwhile.
in some respects, since hollywood never makes any new movies anymore anyway, i could see this being beefed up to make a great new hollywood movie.
So far I agree with both of you. That was a hard book to get through. I thought Pip was whiny for most of the book. I just felt he was always looking elsewhere for his self worth rather than looking within himself (which has been something that's been driving me nuts recently in humans - so it made it difficult to not project those feelings onto his character).
i was ambivalent toward pip. cause when he starts out, he's super young, you know? isn't he a teenager or something? it seems like he's a really young kid when all the convict shit goes down with the file and stuff. at least, my ADD makes me barely notice these things unless i'm in a 10th grade english class and have to do worksheets or take a test.
so, he's like a kid and that's why he's all scared to tell his sister (besides the fact that she's psycho) and joe what happened. even if his sister wasn't nuts, i think kids assume they'll get blamed for stuff like that. like sexual abuse and stuff. and it seems like not too long after, fuckshaw pumblechook or whatever his name is, is coming round to drag his ass all willy-nilly to havisham's.
you know? and in some regards, i'm pissed that he TOTALLY disses joe, but i definitely relate to the idea of wanting to be 'rich and famous.' cause that's his equivalent of having 'great expectations,' i think. although, i wouldn't leave my friends in the dust, i hope. insofar as looking elsewhere for his self worth? well, welcome to the spiritual malady that is the root of alcoholism and continues well into dropping the drink.
so, that wasn't exactly why he bugged me, although maybe it was. maybe it was a case of 'you spot it, you got it.' in fact, i bet it TOTALLY was.
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