Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Ending Is Everything

Quite a saga I have to record... a small percentage of my reading material comes from random sampling of the library shelves, whenever I'm in the mood for something slightly different.  So it must have been like in March or April or something I was in Towson library and I picked up this book called Mr. Allbones Ferrets (actually it was maybe more like June, I don't know).  It seemed like a witty type of book, decently written, and the cover claimed it had a love story at the center... so you know, on the appealing side.  But given that it was about a man who collected ferrets, I just never got around to reading it that first time... But it was by a New Zealand author so when I got back I decided to get it out again (plus I'm a bit compulsive about reading books once I've gotten them out) but yet again I didn't read it... and then I got it out *again* when I first went to the library in Manhattan (see this post) and I kept on renewing it and renewing it... and *finally* I started reading it.
I was reading it mostly on the train, as I do these days, and I was finding it surprisingly engrossing.  After the first rather gross chapter, which described ferret-aided poaching activities in great detail, Mr. Allbones turned into a surprisingly likeable man, considering that he was a completely uneducated nineteenth century English villager (right time, right place, wrong class :)) He takes care of his family, he knows what's what, and he's good at what he does, which is basically ferret keeping.  And the other characters too were well formed... I guess I really do like England, because they were somewhat Dickensian stereotypes, I think (can you say pretension? :) (I'm referring to me here, not the author)).  And the story... well it wasn't that much of a story, but it moved along well, and I had great hopes that everything would turn out well for our friend Allbones.
The slightly disturbing feature of the narrative turned out to be the promised love story.  Now it was bad enough that the romance was between Allbones and his employer's daughter, who differ by at least two degrees of class (she being a gentleman's granddaughter, the bourgeois at least intervening between the them) but really that wasn't even as bad as the fact that I can't imagine what he saw her in her.  Actually I don't have to imagine it - it's very clear that he admires her more as a porcelain doll than as anything else.   Or if he appreciates her inner beauty (and there is some of it in her love of nature and desire to educate combined with a certain innocence and a near complete ignorance of class boundaries) we don't hear all too much about it.  Just about her clear skin and flax blonde hair, etc.  And even though Allbones is a poor villager, he's a good poor villager and I don't like him falling for nothing but a pretty face.  It doesn't mesh with what  I think of him, that's all.
But with that said, the book was flowing along well, and I was willing to give it a chance when... I took it out of my bag and forgot to put it back in before I left the house... which means I didn't have it to read on the train... but since it was Friday, I also didn't have it to read over Shabbos, when I most certainly would have finished it.  And I was quite upset actually - mostly because I wanted to finish it, but really, I was enjoying the book and I thought it would ruin it if I stopped in the middle... but there was nothing for it, and I put off finishing it till the next week (which was last week, I've just been lazy about writing a review).  So anyway, I picked up reading it the next week on the train, and it continued along fine, going along to what I hoped would be some amiable conclusion.  There was a little too much gory detail about this or that, which I guess the author feels makes it more villager like or whatever, but that was okay.  The romance continued to be annoying and implausible, and actually got worse as the relationship grew... but okay, I was still going to finish the book and it wasn't hard to get through or anything.
So yeah, they're all on the ship to New Zealand (yay, New Zealand :)) and the book is almost finished when... I don't know, I guess it's a spoiler, and I don't feel like saying it, but trust me it's weird.  Gross and weird.  And pointless.  I mean what a way to end it.  I really didn't see it coming, it was really not necessary, and I don't see what it added... but whatever at least it was at the end of the book, so I didn't have too much more to get through after the bomb was dropped... oh well, it was good while it lasted :)
Verdict: 1.5/5
Food: something utterly disappointing in the end... like with a terrible aftertaste... like mexican food... well not all mexican food but definitely some of the mexican food i've tasted that uses that weird spice... it's like almost going to be good, if different, but then that spice (whatever it is) just ruins it...

14 comments:

  1. how bad is this ending? does it make it unreadable?

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  2. It's a terrible ending... and since the book wasn't all that great to begin with, why bother?

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  3. i'm looking for books to read over vacation, busy requesting them over nypl so I can pick them up this week hopefully, and guess what: my source is your blog! flattered?

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  4. omg, totally! but it might not be the best source, I read a lot of stupid books :) have you read jasper fforde? you will LOVE him if you haven't - kind of Terry Pratchett for the literary set

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  5. And of course, all the Allegra Goodmans are a good bet - I have all of them from Sarah Sp. right now, except for The Cookbook Collector.

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  6. any other ideas? oh,and btw, could I borrow the sharon shinn book from you?

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  7. whats a good jasper fforde book to read if i haven't read any yet? and thanks for reminding me of terry practchett--i haven't read any of his books in a while

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  8. Gosh, I just gave you 2 :) Did you already read Jasper Ffforde? How long is your vacation anyway? :) And I already returned the Sharon Shinn, as I"m sure you'll recall after reading this...
    Other ideas? the one I just posted (Prom and Prejudice) will take you an hour, but it's fun - I'm bringing it back to queens I think, though Batya might be borrowing it. And Chava loved One Day but I won't read it b/c I read the ending on wikipedia... I'm not sure if you'll care quite as much as I did... Chava thinks it's worth reading anyway

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  9. Sorry didn't see your second comment before I posted. Read ALL the jasper ffordes! but really he has 2 series - the Thursday Next books and the Nursery Crimes and then one more with only one published, Shades of Grey. The Thursday Next ones are the best, so read them first, in order. The first is The Eyre Affair. Look up the rest :)

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  10. thanks so much! who's the author of one day? and could i borrow prom and prejudice if batya doesn't borrow it?

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  11. author is david nicholls - chava might have it, ask her. Also peryl read it, so you can ask her about it. you can of course borrow it (not that it's mine, it's sarah sp's :))

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  12. Oh also, have you read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie? I reviewed that here in October... it's pretty good, definitely read it if you haven't. Sarah Sp. owns that one, and the sequel, which I borrowed from her. And you can for sure get it from the library.

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  13. perfect...this is a good beginning! thanks so much!

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  14. glad to help... i'm curious to see how much you end up getting through in your what? two weeks of vacay... but you better tell me e/t else you read! you're not the only one who needs ideas :)

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