The third time I'm delving in, each time reaching new depths. And clarity. This book that had always eluded me has now been undressed somewhat. It will eventually lose its magic- it has started with this reading- but I have lost no awe because most novels do not take three readings to own.
A passage:
The chaos and tumble of events. The first sentence of every novel should be: 'Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.' Meander if you want to get to town.
And what's amazing is that the novel has few characters, and as is often the case, they are linked. But the passage above is very much describing the novel in which it is embedded. The story is very human, the order faint, but there is nothing negative to be said about the time it takes to tell the story. I wish it would go on longer. I think what had happened before is that I was so seduced by the words that I was not capturing the story- my senses were saturated by the beauty. The third reading has allowed the beauty to dissipate like mist and reveal the reality (in a fictional sense)of the world he creates.
In a word, luscious.
I will reread The English Patient next. I want to understand how the characters that transcend the two novels leap from one fictional reality to another.
For those who have read either- in a word?
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