Warwick Stubbs > Recent Status Updates

Sadly, I have not found this novel as engaging or as interesting as either Dawn or Kindred. Butler's writing doesn't evoke atmosphere or empathetic depths of her main character.

"In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy 'proving' that Socialism means no more than a planned state-capitalism with the grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this. ...to the vast majority of people, Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all."
- p.87

The premise is intriguing, the story isn't. The writing doesn't quite capture the strangeness of the environment, or (what should be) the emotional tug of events.

I wish I was reading the Constance Garnett translation of this book. She's the editor that Dostoevsky needed for this overlong, time consuming block of a novel.

From here to 446 is 130 pages of notes, index, Dutch pronunciation guide (which should have been at the start), bibliography, and acknowledgements.

Truth is bloodier than fiction

The end of Chapter 3 felt like the end of a perfect short story / novella, even without loose ends tied up. A kind of imperfect cadence.