Les Miserables in Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Bookshelf

Sep 08, 2012 Jonathan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

While I didn't technically finish the book, I read about half of it. I read enough to know that this book is terrible. And I am done reading it. The book contains little in the way of plot, but has an INCREDIBLE amount of irrelevant and detailed minutiae. Right when the plot starts to pick up a little bit, Hugo dives into some unrelated topic for a hundred pages. When he gets back around to the plot, you are now months or years in the future, losing any suspense or drama that he had started to c ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Max rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was a really good book, and overall I had a great time reading it. However, it's not currently in danger of displacing any of my favorites. I think part of that is because a few bits were difficult to get through and I just didn't unreservedly love the experience the way I have with my favorite books. Jean Valjean is, of course, a wonderful character even if he is a bit overly moral at times, and I loved that Javert is a complicated character who isn't truly a villain. He's an antagonist, b This was a really good book, and overall I had a great time reading it. However, it's not currently in danger of displacing any of my favorites. I think part of that is because a few bits were difficult to get through and I just didn't unreservedly love the experience the way I have with my favorite books. Jean Valjean is, of course, a wonderful character even if he is a bit overly moral at times, and I loved that Javert is a complicated character who isn't truly a villain. He's an antagonist, but that's in large part because he serves the laws of corrupt society rather than the holy laws of God. As a result, I'll never quite enjoy the musical's depiction of him as much as I once did. Gavroche is also a definite standout character, getting plenty of fun jibes in and having a complicated relationship with the rest of the cast that I didn't know about from the musical. However, I have to say I didn't care for Marius or Cosette much. I think the biggest part of this is that a lot of the way Hugo writes about their relationship bugs me for one reason or another - it's a highly idealized and very Christian vision of love that I didn't much care for. Plus, Marius isn't really a sufficiently active character for my tastes. The plot is rather depressing, as the title implies, but also a fascinating look at the interconnectedness of people and a period of France's history. There's a ton of stuff going on and one of the most fun things for me was learning the unexpected ways in which every character is connected to each other. This really helped to keep me a lot more invested than how I felt when I was first exposed to the story through the film of the musical. The stories weave in and out of each other using Jean Valjean as a throughline, helping to keep the novel as a whole coherent as opposed to the film's jumpy mess. I do feel like some moments dragged, and while Hugo's rambles about history or politics could be interesting, they too often interrupted the pacing. The most egregious of these is his choice to interrupt the tense scene of Jean Valjean and Marius escaping the barricade with a 15 page meditation on Paris's sewer system. Still, the novel manages to maintain a high level of interest in its characters and events throughout, and all in all I had a pretty good time reading it. I feel that it may well be elevated to join my favorite books some day when I reread it, but for now my first read through makes me feel it is excellent but not perfect, at least by my personal standards. ...more

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