Out and about

[ksmith]

Took out the bike this morning. A shade over 7 miles, over neighborhood streets and roads through the local marina and state park. Saw a chipmunk for the first time in a while--we used to have quite a few living around the house because Dad used to feed them, but they're gone now. Could have been lack of food, though I tend to blame the increase in the number of feral cats.

Also saw sandpipers. Played "Spot the Jaguar" down by the marina, a game usually reserved for train rides into Chicago. That version is very simple--you just watch out the window at each train stop, and look for Jags in the commuter lots and nearby intersections. As one passes through the North Shore towns--Glencoe, Kenilworth, Winnetka, etc.--that level loses its challenge, and we go to the next level, namely "Spot the Rolls." If you manage to spot one, you have to go to the next level, which is "Spot the Bentley." Over the years, I have managed to spot a Rolls. I think I may have seen a Bentley as well, but non-car person that I am, I may have confused it with a Rolls.

ANYway, spotted 2 Jaguar sedans at the marina.

Still a little dodgy on the timing and degree of gear-shifting, but getting better.

It's supposed to be sweltering today. It's already hot--83F (23C), and expected to hit the mid-90s (35C-ish). Humid. NO rain in sight. *phfft*

Current book: Elizabeth Kostova's THE HISTORIAN. Enjoying it so far, although it's a slow starter. Atmosphere-dependent, but I'm enjoying the descriptions of Eastern European and Middle Eastern cities and towns. The main complaint I have so far is one I've seen in reviews, namely that there are 3 POVS, and it is sometimes hard to tell whose head you're in at the start of a scene. Maybe that's just the way it is--without headers as signposts or some other indicator, the reader just needs to take a moment to figure it out.

One thing I'm pondering. THE HISTORIAN is horror, at least imho, that was marketed to a mainstream audience. JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL is fantasy that's being steered the same way. Granted, I'm still in the middle of one and have yet to read the other, but from all I've read and seen, they're both fairly leisurely-paced books. No real point at this point, except that leisurely isn't a term I think of when I think of pacing.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One issue I see is that all three characters spend most of their time in the same places--libraries, flats, the same cities. They have the same backgrounds, are all academics, and are battling the same bogey. As the story is unfurling, they are all feeling threatened at the same time, and the deaths that take place at this point in the book are very similar. This may be the intent of the author, to show the same types of characters meeting the same threats over a span of three generations. If so, I would think you would need to make the effort to differentiate character a little more. As an aside, two POVs are middle aged men, but one is a woman who ages over the course of the story from teenage to adult, so there should be more opportunity to differentiate. But as I said, I am still in the first 1/4 of the book, and the woman had lost her mother at a young age and was raised in a rarified academic environment. I can see her attaining the patina of maturity at an early age.

One problem could be that I read this book in spurts, usually at night when my attention span is not at its best. I could be missing things. Some books are not meant to be read in spurts.

I confess that I had this same problem with Stephen Fry's THE LIAR. I loved this book, but the story timeshifted between the protag's public school days and his adult life, and I sometimes had to stop and figure out which head I was in. I've seen this in BritLit. It's sometimes worse in romance novels, where I've seen POV shifts within the same scene. Maybe I lack flexibility, but that bugs me.

I can sense the growing dread, though. Letting out the dog at 1am hasn't provoked this level of creeps since my first viewing of "Hush". Overall, I'm enjoying TH, but it's not a waltz among the flowers.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

In other words, the characters speak with very similar voices. This realization hit me after I posted my comment, of course.