Reading the Chunksters discussion

Week 5 - Chapters 17-20

Welcome to week 5...another 100 pages down and I'm still not feeling any real connection with this book or these characters. I've never read a book of this length that I felt so detached from. I do admit to skimming some of the Kircher parts. I find them extremely uninteresting and boring. I get the point that they reflect things that are happening in the current day I just don't find it very interesting.

We did learn some dates this week. It looks like the contemporary stuff is 1982. I'm basing that on the World Cup info that was given. If it was mentioned previously I didn't pick up on it.

There were some bizarre things this week. Queen Christina did some weird stuff and then there was the scene with Loredana and the occult ritual that was odd. I didn't like finding out Loredana is sick she is one of the few characters along with Elaine that I like. Although I think the Colonel's wife is about to cause him some serious grief that storyline could get interesting.

So anybody else have any thoughts this week?

I feel the same way, Amanda. I have no real attachment to anyone. It is a weird feeling. Good catch on the date, though!

For Loredana, finding out she was sick was a bit of a let down. In her first sections, when she kept saying things like "I can't get involved with anyone", I was hoping it was because of something more crazy and fun (like being a double agent spy or something), and not sick.

Yes, the Kircher sections are terribly tedious for me as well. I do realize that I am supposed to be finding parallels with the "current day" story, but its not compelling enough for me to put in the effort.

Overall, I feel like I'm not putting in the effort required for this book, but thats mainly because I feel like the reward won't be worth it. I also don't know if its the translation or not (it probably is), but some parts are so comically cliche its a bit tough to take the story seriously.

Sorry that I haven't posted so far, but I'm abroad now and it's hard to keep up. I'll post my comments when I'm finished with these sections, but I think I need more than a week to catch up. As for Loredana, I was sure she was sick so the hints were there - I read only 3 sections so far.

I agree the signs were there that she was sick I was just hoping for a different outcome. Enjoy your travels and just post as you catch up. I think it's only the 3 of us still reading.

I guess by now the worst part of the book is the description of Elaine's group's journey through the jungle. I know that for you Amanda it was the most interesting one, but to me there's simply too much happening there. In this part for instance Dietlev has gangrene and they're cutting off his leg. With details. Initially I thought this arc offered promise as I wanted to read about fossil collection in Mato Grosso. Right now with Milton dead I cannot help but blame Dietlev for being so stupid as to proceed with the mission using Herman's boat instead of cancelling the mission in the first place.