Matthew Ted’s Comments (group member since Sep 02, 2020)

Matthew Ted’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

I've had his New Grub Street on my bookcase for years, but also never read him. Guess now's the time.

I'm still waiting (impatiently) for my reservation on the book to be processed at the library, I'm hoping I'll have my hands on it in the next few days. Glad to see the thoughts are positive so far and that it is a smooth read, here's hoping I can catch up somewhat.

Tempted to join too, but have so much to read. I'll see how it goes. Have you read Proust before, Darrin? I finished his novel this year in Paris!

Above all, the ending really surprised me. I was expecting it to be a fairly typical ending where one of them dies or they get married. Neither! For once! I loved Lavretsky, he reminded me of Tolstoy's Levin in my ways. I wonder if Turgenev has been partially forgotten because he only wrote relatively small books. Would he be remembered as Tolstoy if he wrote a 1000 page novel about a Russian family through the years or something of the like?

Ken wrote: "Matthew Ted wrote: "I went to collect my copy from my local library today and it wasn't on the Reservation shelf. Checked with a member of staff, and nope, nowhere in sight. She said it's getting q..."

I wondered that too, she just reordered it. She never got to the bottom of where it went, exactly. Here's hoping the next one makes it to me. As I left the library I heard her talking to another member of staff saying exactly this, "Maybe we should move the reservations as this keeps happening."

I went to collect my copy from my local library today and it wasn't on the Reservation shelf. Checked with a member of staff, and nope, nowhere in sight. She said it's getting quite common that people look at the Reservation shelf and if there's anything they like, they take it, ignoring the label that has the surname of the person who reserved it. If that's the case then our book choice was so good it was stolen from me.

I'll be doing the same, Ken. A last minute blast, especially if it's so short.

Great. I like Turgenev. His Fathers and Sons was a great philosophical read, but his First Love was a little too simple for me; they were almost like different writers. Looking forward to seeing where this one sits in the spectrum. I better order myself a copy.

The last few hundred pages were definitely the best of the book, but boy did Dostoyevsky make us work through some things to get there. Ironically when it became more like Crime and Punishment, I started liking it more.

Agreed, it's what I found most disappointing. Though I liked the philosophical side, the novel just felt like it was filled with gratuitous ramblings and side-plots, the characters all seemed like caricatures, over-the-top and soap-like. In a way I found it hard to take it seriously when the characters were all raving and shouting and crying. It completely distracted me, and people always say Dostoyevsky is the one with the psychological depth but honestly Tolstoy's characters have been far more impressive to me.

It was by this point I started enjoying the novel more but I found all its moving parts a little off-putting and some bits wondered how/why it was part of the narrative altogether. That being said, the 'action' against the 'philosophical' was always needed respite. Then again we always have to give the old 19thC writers credit, they all (I really mean mostly) liked to write giant books.

Ken wrote: "Biblically put, Matt! A lot of reaping and sowing going down in the Bible. I wonder if others are having the same experience.

In my own case, I thought the issue was failing to mark passages to co..."

I also didn't underline much when I usually decimate my books in underlinings, unless they are from the library, of course. Nothing jumped out at me. Or maybe all the good bits were so bogged down in the page-long speeches that the point of my pencil couldn't find them.

I found I didn't have an awful lot to actually say about it, which is strange as it seems like such a dense and philosophically deep novel. Through reading it I was wondering to myself, what shall I say in the book-club? I found the first 2/3 of the novel fairly hard work. I don't mind hard work in books, in fact sometimes I quite like it, but I wasn't reaping as much as I wanted, after so much sowing.

I agree with Laysee, the characters seemed too histrionic for me, especially in this first portion. It wasn't an issue when I read Crime and Punishment as the whole thing (and everyone in it) seemed a little. . . unhinged. In this it felt a bit over the top.

Ken wrote: "I put up the reading schedule. Each "Book" is around 200-235 pp. Book Four, however, runs some 325 pp. I decided to break that in half and spill into March. That way, should anyone fall behind, the..."

Looks great. Thanks, Ken. Looking forward to getting started.

P&V are the go-to Russian translators these days as far as I'm aware and they haven't failed me yet. (And Ken, Ciardi!)

Looking forward to another Obscure read, Merry Christmas all.

Ken wrote: "Are metaphors allowed to be random, though?"

I'd say no. Professors couldn't even allow a mixed metaphor, let alone a random or useless one.

I'm in the same camp as Diane. I've liked many novels with unlikeable characters and have no problem with it: unlikeable characters are sometimes more interesting than likeable ones. My issue with Jackson's novel is the vapidity of the characters. None of them stood out as being particularly developed or interesting beyond rather strange archetypes.

The novel seemed to have little overarching "purpose" other than perhaps to entertain, but it failed to do that with me. The only reason I spared it from getting 1-star is because some scenes were well-written and her other novels have proved she can, at least, write. Benefit of the doubt, essentially.

I had slight interest but it's waning fast. Not doing too much tomorrow so might push to the end too. I just can't figure out what Jackson is going for and the amount of characters is honestly getting ridiculous, never seen anything like it. Hill House, if only her subsequent book, is leagues above this, quite the jump in skill.