In self’s reading, it’s all about the characters. Here are her favorites from her most recent reads (doesn’t look like she’s going to make her Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, she’s been so poky — hanging on to her translations, her intricate classic novels, her favorite book companions).
From Current Read, The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry:
CORA SEABORNE. Joanna Ransome. Luke Garrett. Naomi Banks.
Swann’s Way and Anna Karenina are books she’s read before, but her focus shifted surprisingly on second reading.
From Swann’s Way (the Lydia Davis translation), by Marcel Proust:
The narrator. Swann, always and forever.
From Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy:
DOLLY. Karenin. Kitty. Kitty’s father, Prince Alexander Dmitrievich. Seryozha. Vronsky.
It’s strange, self feels no sympathy whatsoever for Anna Karenina. Not on this re-read. Anna seems less like a real woman and more like a construct used by Tolstoy to make a point. Self hated her from the moment she advised Dolly to stick with her faithless, profligate husband. Was crowing for her fall. Wished Dolly were given a more redemptive story arc.
The character who exhibits the most growth in Anna Karenina is, in self’s humble opinion, Karenin. Because he falls in love with his wife’s child with another man. That’s quite an arc! When he shows up regularly at the baby’s nursery, and the governesses don’t know what to make of it? WAAAAH!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.