Ellen’s Comments (group member since Sep 06, 2013)

Ellen’s comments from the Reading the Chunksters group.

I'm way ahead at chapter forty-something so no problem with spoilers here.

Lorna, my book is 52 hours. The narrator is Bill Homewood.

I've picked this book up and put it down several times and it has always been during the revenge part. At that point, the story is meandering and there are a zillion characters. Even Dantes has so many aliases, it can be hard to keep up.

However, this time, I am persevering. I am listening on audio during my daily walks and I find it a good fit.

I am enjoying being transported to a very different place and time.

I plan to join in. I'm on Chapter 31, having started it around Christmas but then got distracted mid January. I picked it up again today when I saw this group is reading it.

I'm not sure what to make of Dantes yet. I agree with Peg's characterization but the naivete and smarts are something of a disconnect for me. That said, he seems like a good character to be both victim and hero.

I remember a friend telling me she had a crush on him while she was reading the book and I think I've read other women say something similar. I'm not feeling it myself, at least not yet.

I started watching it. I haven't gotten that far but the acting is amazing. Melmotte looks just like I pictured him.

It was a 2001 BBC production and I just saw that it's on Amazon Prime. I plan to watch it forthwith (as Trollope might say)!
https://www.amazon.com/The-Way-We-Liv...

Hello, I'm a long time member of this group but haven't posted in quite a while. I finished this book today and really enjoyed it. I loved how well Trollope drew the different characters and how well-rounded and realistic they were.

For the last several hundred pages, I kept thinking this would make a great movie. A friend told me today that there was a TV series but I would love to see a movie version.

Great! I've already read Middlemarch and highly recommend it.

Harry wrote: "Does anyone want to tackle Tom Jones with me? I want to read it in November."

I'm up for Tom Jones in November. I've never read it and I *should* have my TBR pile at least somewhat cleared by then.

Me, too. I bailed on Moby Dick and Kristen Lavransdatter and I've read Les Miserables. I want to stay in the group, too, and am keeping my fingers crossed for the next one,

Hi, I'm Ellen and no longer a professional librarian. However, I am very active as a volunteer for my local library. You can take the girl out of the library but you can't take the library out of the girl!

I am now a political blogger (from a liberal perspective) but don't worry, I never discuss politics here nor do I care about anyone else's politics. Reading is my escape from the world I inhabit so I almost never read political books. Otherwise, I am open to reading almost any genre.

I've been a member of this group for years and have always liked it because the group reads serious books and has intelligent discussions. However, my free time is limited and I have become very picky about which books I start and if I don't like a book, I don't usually finish it. That plus the fact I have frequently fallen hopelessly behind on the group books I do read, has turned me into more of a lurker than a participant.

That said, I am up to speed on Moby Dickens and am enjoying it more than I thought I would.

I'm still reading, just haven't had much to say. I finished Part One of The Wife and am not far into Part Two. It would be helpful to know the schedule so I can pace myself.

I'd be on board with Kristin's independent-mindedness or a passionate nature that makes her throw caution to the wind if we saw it elsewhere in her character but so far not. And even if her wild infatuation was something that suddenly overtook her, I'd have thought she would have been tormented about it.

For some reason, I keep thinking of Scarlett O'Hara as a contrast. She did some stupid, crazy things but they all seemed totally fitting for her character.

I don't mean to belabor the point because so far the author is doing an excellent job of keeping me caught up in the story and making me forget my incredulity most of the time.

I just finished this part yesterday and I am finding it very engaging but frustrating. I have the same problems as Everyman, above, but my frustration is that I don't feel I have any kind of handle on Kristin's character. She seems like a dutiful daughter but what kind of dutiful daughter would just cavalierly toss aside the man her parents chose for her for a guy like Erland? And she goes running off for trysts while she is living in a convent? I'm not even totally clear what she sees in him.

I feel like this is one of those books in which the author uses his/her protagonist as a pawn to make a statement (in this case something to do with religion and faith) and fits the character into the action rather than having the action result from the character(s).

What keeps me engaged despite all that is that all the other characters feel very real and interesting.

Meghan wrote: "I like your point about Pierre, Ellen. I thought that there was some Tolstoy in Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky: a big old softie under all that growling."

Good point.

I read this book years ago and absolutely loved it. I picked it up again and have been surprised at how much I have forgotten.

One thing about Pierre: Like him or not (and I find him endearing) he is widely recognized as being a lot like Tolstoy, himself. I believe Tolstoy was heavyset and considered awkward. I can't remember if Tolstoy was illegitimate, inherited money, or what other biographical details they shared. But I do think that's something to keep in mind as the story goes on.

Hi, everybody. I've been absent from this group for quite a while but I just started listening to this book during a long car trip and got hooked. I'm just a little bit past Chapter 11 now.

The four pregnancies (assuming it will be) work for me because I think Follett is deliberately trying to show a commonality between the otherwise completely different lives. "No matter who they are, they all get swept up in the course of history" kind of thing.

Not super profound but it does work for me in the context of this book - which we all seem to agree is not literature.

I was really hoping to read this one with the group but it seems like a lost cause. So maybe you should just archive it.

Thanks, Kara. That's a great observation about luck and circumstance. On the one hand, everybody - even Monte Cristo - is so subject to that. And on the other, so much only seems that way to the people involved, who are really subject to his manipulations.

I'm on Chapter 50 (he's visiting the Morrel family) and I'm sucked in but all the characters are a bit confusing.

Also, I'm wondering about that servant that killed the guy in Montecristo's garden. Did Dantes know about that in advance? If so, how? I could have missed it since I put the book down for a long time and, as I said, there are so many darned characters, it's hard to keep them all straight! At least for me.