A difficult read?

[katrina]

I really enjoyed this book, the characters events, descriptions and language but for some reason it was a book I had to read really slowly, I seemed to read for an hour and not have managed many pages. Did anyone else hae this issue?

[megustaleer]

I've not experienced that, yet.
I don't read for very long periods, but am satisfied with the amount I have managed to read in the time. I've only just got to chapter 20, so that may change.
They are very short chapters, which I like, as I find it easier to keep track of what I read when I picked the book up last.
Maybe the story jumps about a bit between time periods and families as it progresses? That can slow down the rate at which the reader can process the text, and the last couple of chapters I have read have seemed a bit disconnected. I did need to think about where they fitted into the story as revealed so far.

[Grammath]

I haven't re-read "Oscar and Lucinda" for BGO, having read it last year.

I had a similar experience to katrina, it did seem to take a long time to read. The edition I had (the Faber classics one with the red and yellow cover) did have quite small print but was still over 500 pages. It is actually a pretty long novel.

I didn't mind it being a slow read; the language is quite rich and dense and worth luxuriating in. In fact, it vaguely reminded me of Dickens at times. Given the era in which the novel is set, I did wonder if this was deliberate on Carey's part.

[chuntzy]

It's a re-read for me but well worth it as I must have rushed through it the first time many years ago. (I'm about half way now).

This is good writing certainly. I agree with Grammath that it's Dickensian - in its scope and its characterisation. But then you have surprising modernist twists as when the descendant's narrative takes over and lets us know that Oscar didn't travel, as we might naively have thought, on a cheap C of E ticket on a clipper but on a posh state of the art vessel, no expense spared.

And just can't you visualise Oscar's face and mannerisms!

[megustaleer]

I agree with Grammath that it's Dickensian - in its scope and its characterisation. i have just read the description of The d'Abbs's household, and the Dickensian influence is very apparent there.