Tag: Oprah\’s book club

Pillars of the Earth: Flips Flipping Pages October book discussion

I was dragging my feet about reading this month’s selection, Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth (henceforth to be referred to as POTE), primarily because I didn’t expect to like it. I first mooched a copy of the book when Patti, one of my BookMoochers Pilipinas friends proclaimed it as her all-time favorite book and my curiosity was piqued, but I had the book languishing in my TBR for over a year until I lost my first copy in last year’s flood. I got a replacement a several months later, but I have to admit that if it wasn’t assigned for the book discussion, I wouldn’t have picked it up.

I’m not one to shy away from chunksters, but given the length of the book (973 pages), I started POTE one week before the discussion, figuring I’d have to read around 200 pages a day. I read the first chapter late Thursday night, and finished a few more chapters on Friday night.

On Saturday, I read the book after breakfast and on to the afternoon. I had planned to go to a friend’s bookshop opening that night, but it rained heavily and I got stuck at home because the street was flooded, and all my plans went awry. I figured I might as well make a dent in the novel (I was waiting for the street to clear out, but it didn’t until late that night), and I was reading and reading, and before I knew it, I had finished 900 pages — right up to the end of the book!

I hope you’ll indulge the lengthy post; it’s possible this book may be my best book for 2010 and I want to share the experience with you. Don’t worry, no spoilers!
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Finally — Book 10

I just realized beating last year’s record of 230+ books will be a challenge this year because I am writing about them too, and that considerably slows me down (Gosh, I never thought I’d be able to sustain writing past a couple of books)… But I will attempt to anyway, just so I’ll have some sort of record of the books I’ve finished reading, and at least it’s a good writing exercise.

Book #10 is The Reader by Bernhard Schlink; I’m also putting it down as a European book for the FFP diversity challenge.

I must admit that I do not read Oprah’s book club selections, because they usually don’t interest me and are often the dramatic types of books, which aren’t really my cup of tea.
I actually only got this copy because it was P40 and it came up as a suggested book for FFP discussion (but no one’s gotten around to moderating it).

Anyway, as my first Oprah book, I think I can safely say I was right to stay away.

From start to finish I found the book boring and tedious and I actually finished the book for the sake of finishing it. The relationship between Hanna and Michael was disturbing (36 year old woman and a 15 year old kid?!?), but not in a way that compelled me to read on.

The main problem for me is that it’s so flat — you know Michael is the persona but it reads as if it were an exposition, rather than a narration, with very little feeling, and it’s hard to see the main characters as real people, because they were never fully developed. The plot is weak too, and it stagnates into limpid pools of rambling most of the time.

At least the hype never quite reached the Philippines — I read some reviews that it was really hyped in the US (heh, blame Oprah) and a lot of people were disappointed.

A few points briefly stirred me, but not enough to elevate my opinion of the book (I wish the author developed these more; maybe that would’ve helped):

1) The book is from the German point of view of the Holocaust, which isn’t very common.
2) It touches briefly on illiteracy, and its psychological effects on the person
3) Hanna on the stand being interrogated, and then she turns to the judge and asks, “What would you have done?” — which for me was the only moral aspect of the book that made any sort of impact on me.

Sigh. This book will probably end up in my mooching inventory, unless perhaps Andi wants it, although that might not be such a good idea, as it might depress him…

Maybe the movie’s better.

***
My copy: Vintage trade paperback, P40 from Book Sale

My rating: 2/5 stars

Photo from illiterarty.com