A Book Completed

Day Seven, and I've finished reading my first Booker Prize winner!

The characters all did basically what I expected of them, and none of the major revelations surprised me too much. I suspect that the shock value has not fared well with the passing of years, and perhaps in 1969 when it was published it may have even been slightly scandalous. I have nothing to support this, but I like to think that it's true because, quite honestly, without some level of shock value I fail to see how this book was the "very best book of the year'.

I did enjoy the story, if not the telling of it. The flashbacks and frequent POV changes irritated me. Any one character alone couldn't have told the whole story, I know that, but maybe that's a part of the issue that I have with it. Each character stays contained within themselves, never really growing to understand each other in a new way. They each try to shoulder the entire blame for the familial disfunction (a blame I believe may lay with Sarah) but they never learn the truth about each other. I'm trying to see where the character arch is within this story, and I don't see it. I don't believe that any of them has changed, for better or for worse. Their situation is different, but they are the same. Pretty disappointing, really.

I read a small review (after I'd finished the book!) which claims that not only was Norman the scapegoat for his family, but the entire family was a scapegoat for the Jewish people throughout history. Taken that way I find the final pages of the novel much deeper, but I'm not really convinced of that viewpoint. I'll have to ruminate on it a bit, see how the whole of the novel percolates through my brain in the coming days. I'll get back to you on it.

I don't feel as accomplished as I'd hoped I would, mainly because the book wasn't as challenging as I'd hoped it would be. There were parts of it that I enjoyed, and parts which I didn't, but nothing about this book really challenged my world view at all. I've always thought that was something great literature was meant to do. After all, if I'm not reading for the pure escapism of the story, I should at least grow as a person from the experience of having read that book. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from ink and paper, but I rather hope I'm not. Again, we'll see if a few days or weeks of contemplation enriches the experience for me.

Tomorrow I start a new book!