Ahira's Hangar

I'm still working away on Drood - about halfway done now. It is slow going for me - while I can see the obvious brilliance of Simmons's writing, and his playing with alternate mental realities (the mesmerism and drugs) there is still only so much I can take of the Wilkie Collins POV at a time. He is such an unpleasant person, and such a completely unreliable narrator...wonderfully well written, even though I feel like I am walking through a sewer when I spend time in his mind and voice. So I will read a hundred pages or so, take a break for a couple of days, then go back for another round.

I felt the same way about Collins. It's like going to watch a Dicken's play and having a heckler sitting next to you.

I have made it up into the 600's now (out of about 800 pages). Still hating the Wilkie Collins main POV character. I had actually thought about checking one of his novels out of the library to read, but do not think I can stand to now.

I had the same thought about 1/3rd thru the book and about where you are now, I decided, No way!

Finished up the book this morning. Briallint writing, but man, I do not think I have ever run into a more unlikable main character than Wilkie Collins. Did he have even a single redeeming characteristic or trait? Even seen through Collins's drug hazed jealous eyes - Dickens, even with the nasty mess with his wife, at least cared passionately about the well being of children and the poor, and was a much more sympathetic character in general. He even tried to bring out compassion in Collins, as when he took Collins's handkerchief to cover up the faces of those dead abandoned babies. Collins, of course, cared only about Collins...

SPOILER SPACE for any who have not read it yet.




Left me longing for a story where there really was a Drood battling the police with Dickens fighting on the police side. No Collins though please.

That would be an awesome story.