Quote:
Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes
I'm 80% through now. I can't say the book is enamoring me that much. I like the tone and the book speaks through atmosphere quite well, but it's a lot of nothing about a person who outside of shyness and sexual orientation that was not social norm felt as an outcast. It's lacking much drama for me. It's a very soft book for me and easy to read in that respect. Probably deeper for many.
I believe that not having read any of Henry James' work yet I am at a disadvantage for getting more out of the book. Either that or I'm just daft. Which is quite possibly true.
I did like the scene of them drowning the clothes. I thought it was one of the best descriptions and alluded to so many things in his life.
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I've been reading the book slowly. I really likely it and the writing style. The only work of his that I have read is
The Turn of the Screw. Many of his books are on my TBR list and regretfully I've never gotten to them. Toibin was also on my TBR. I've been approaching it like a blank canvas per the suggestion of Desert Blues. I've been treating it more like a psychological study of his mind and memories trying to figure out what the author wants us to know of James (and why?). Therefore I don't mind too much that it is not plot-driven. It started out sort of open-ended anyway since it is focusing on a 5-year time period of his life. I just finished the chapter on Constance and the scene of drowning the clothes. I thought it was very haunting and powerful! What an interesting relationship. I also liked the description of unsealing her rooms as being preplanned in her mind as her final novel and her family and Henry were characters acting out their parts.