As I said in my last post, I really wanted to like this novel, and to be able to say nice things about it. It was not a bad book, in fact some parts of it (particularly the descriptions of the farm) are quite beautiful. However, I'm still not certain that I actually understood the book, or even the main character. I don't like not understanding a book, it makes me feel stupid. The result is that I end up not liking the book because it's made me feel stupid, which is unfair to the book but kind of inevitable. I'm not a good person.
There may be spoilers. I apologize, but in my attempt to understand this book spoilers are not a major concern for me. If they are for you, please don't say I didn't warn you. I'm trying not to Spoil, but I can't make any guarantees. Sorry.
Still with me? Ok, let's go.
My basic understanding of the book is that Mehring, the hobby farmer, feels he has lost the love of his ex-wife, his teenaged son, and his former mistress. He travels the world, flirts with women, over-sees the management of his farm, but feels unfulfilled, empty, unloved. The only consistency in his life comes from his land, and he slowly falls in love with it, until it also rejects him - in the form of a rather gross scene following a flood. Maybe it's Mehring rejecting the farm, as he has slowly shut himself off from the rest of his life. I'm not really sure. The final scene with Mehring on the farm was gross but inevitable. I thought it was a pretty good ending for the farm, which may actually be the protagonist of the piece.
The character of Mehring left me feeling unresolved, even a little dirty. By the second half of the book I was doubting his sanity, and by the second last chapter I was sure he'd lost his dang mind. The novel is filled with rambling train of thought passages where Mehring jumps from thoughts of his farm, his lover, his son, his workers, his indiscretions, all in a completely random way, and then back to where he started. There are also frequent imagined conversations, to the point where I'm still not sure if some parts of the novel were just fantasy sequences. It was very annoying for me, but I suppose it's just one of those artistic choices - you'll either love it, or you won't.
On the 'next book' front, I'm moving on to the winner for 1975, "Heat and Dust" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. This week I have no dental appointments, no knitting night, and only two hockey games. In theory, I'll be able to finish this book early.
We'll see about that.
Happy reading!
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