Our Mutual Friend in Reading the Chunksters

Nov 25, 2021 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-2021

I am a little ashamed to say that this was my first experience of reading Dickens properly, though I am obviously very familiar with some of his plots through film and TV adaptations and radio abridgements, not to mention pastiches such as BBC Radio's Bleak Expectations. So many elements felt familiar.

I read it now because I have taken on the task of attempting to revive the dormant Reading the Chunksters group after spotting that it no longer had any moderators, and they chose this as a group ...more

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Mar 14, 2022 Brian E Reynolds rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I found this book a disappointment for the following reasons:
1. The story seemed poorly organized. There were too many story threads and one read many chapters without getting back to a certain storyline. It was hard to tell what threads were important or not and many of the storylines seemed extraneous.
2. There were too many characters, the mast majority being underdeveloped. Three sets of villains are too many. As for the heroic characters, I never felt I got to know them well, including Harm I found this book a disappointment for the following reasons:
1. The story seemed poorly organized. There were too many story threads and one read many chapters without getting back to a certain storyline. It was hard to tell what threads were important or not and many of the storylines seemed extraneous.
2. There were too many characters, the mast majority being underdeveloped. Three sets of villains are too many. As for the heroic characters, I never felt I got to know them well, including Harmon, Eugene, Bella or Lizzie. None are as nearly as memorable as the ones from Great Expectations or David Copperfield. The best characters in this book were the offbeat quirky ones like Riah, Venus and Jenny Wren that Dickens populates his books with. However, these are side characters that just added spice to the story and my fondness for them is insufficient to change my attitude toward the meat of the novel.
3. Dickens' descriptions of scenes in this novel seemed more cryptic than usual, often resulting in my inability to properly visualize the story events. While that is more due to my own lack of reading ability, I don’t remember having such a similar problem with the 5 previous Dickens I have read.
4. I was placated while reading this novel by the expectation that the story threads were to be woven together in a highly satisfactory ending. Instead, I found most of the ending events to be unrealistic and unsatisfying.
5. I was expecting to read a high-level Dickens ranking with Bleak House yet enjoyed this less than the other Dickens I have read. Again, this disappointment is likely a result of my lack of skill at reading and understanding Dickens. From what I have read, my reaction is more similar to the reactions of the general reading public of the time while true latter-day Dickens aficionados appreciate this book and rate it highly.

I have 6 GR friends who have read and rated this book. They are all skilled and knowledgeable readers whose opinions I respect. Every one of them has rated this book as a 5-star read. Our Mutual Friend has the highest GR rating of all of Dickens’s novels with a 4.08-star average.
Thus, I can only view the finish to my relationship with this book as definitely a “It’s me – not you” situation. I waver between rating this as 3-stars or 2-stars based on my own disappointing reading experience. I gave this 3 stars at first only because i was overly influenced by the universal 5 star ratings from my GR friends. Upon reflection of only my own experince, I rate this as 2-stars. ...more

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Apr 28, 2022 Jess Penhallow rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: boxall-s

I wrote a very thorough review and then closed the tab and lost it so here's the gist:

Pros
- Great atmosphere
- Interesting and individual female main characters
- Fantastic quirky supporting characters

Cons
- Meandering plot
- Superfluous characters
- Poor conclusion to the central mystery
- Uninteresting romantic subplots
- Confusing satire ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Francis rated it really liked it

Finished the last 1/3 with Mil Nicholson on Librivox - splendid

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Feb 29, 2024 Jess Foley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-i-own, made-my-brain-explode, essential-read, dickens

Depressed that I’ve finished this masterpiece. Story on such a scale it demands to be re-read. A book I’d commit to memory if Fahrenheit 451 becomes fact instead of fiction.

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