Book reading. Reading some books.

[leene_chan]

Actually, I'm just continuing to read Gormenghast. I've reached the third book in the trilogy, Titus Alone. There are four books in the series, but the last is incomplete. It's included in the anthology along with some critical essays and I swear it's about two pages long.

I committed the age-old error of reading book reviews before I started the novel. Apparently most people consider Titus Alone to be some kind of travesty because of how different it is from the first two books. I'm only about forty pages into it so far. Over eight-hundred into the entire anthology! I wouldn't call it a travesty, but it's very, very odd. Who would have expected that the third book in a Gothic trilogy would be comic-book sci-fi? I have to admit that I don't like Titus at all as a character. Ever since he "came of age" in Gormenghast he's been a whiny, Hamlet-like anti-hero. Not as likeable to me as Fucshia, Flay, Dr. Prunesquallor or even the Countess Gertrude. Oh well. The premise for this last finished book is interesting enough to keep me reading. We'll see if I'm crying foul by the end!

The only other book I have lying around from the holidays is Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers. I'm really getting hooked on these long books...

Comments

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

You'll have to tell me what you think - I never read the third book! In fact, at this point, I'd probably have to go back and read the first two again to remember what the heck it was all about!

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure to post about it! Wikipedia has summaries of the first two books if you aren't up to rereading them. They are quite long. XD

I heard that Titus Alone was a troubled book, that the author had started to lose his mind while he was writing it, blah blah blah...I'm reserving my judgment till the end. After all, how can you look down on a book that introduces a major character who's stark naked except for a fireman's helmet?