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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I'm also glad that we read this book. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I abandoned 100 Years of Solitude about halfway through so I was a little fearful that the experience would be similar.
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I liked 100 Years of Solitude but I can see where your frustrations might've been with it. At least, I can guess it might have something to do with its haphazard plotting? I think you also read his Love in the Time of Cholera when it was a book club selection; if so did you like that one better? (it's been a long time and I can't remember anything of what was in that thread, heh)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
And of course the reader is wondering too how it's going to end! I do agree with you that the book felt compressed at the end. I was surprised that it took so long for Eva and Rolf's stories to connect. Like somewhere around 75% maybe? I thought that romantic line would occur much sooner.
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I agree; I was surprised at how long it took for them to properly connect storylines. Perhaps if they were both equally co-protagonists, but the book obviously makes Eva THE protagonist with Rolf as more of a secondary protagonist, so Rolf's whole story seems almost only in service of the 'main' story happening to Eva, with which keeping the stories apart so long left his thread feeling as if it were dangling.
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Originally Posted by AnotherCat
I also wondered if the author was unsure how to wind up the story line as it seemed, to me, a bit straggly and compressed at the end. But I find that I feel that way quite often when reading novels.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I think part of the issue was how to make the mishmash of story lines all work out with happy endings so that made it a "bit lumpier" and rushed.
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Well, what with the timing of tomorrow being the series finale, this makes me think of the epic Game of Thrones television show. It was an excellent series when it still had books to adapt from. The last few seasons it passed the written books (which I've also read all of) and even though the author Martin gave the showrunners a general outline of what he plans to happen in the final unpublished books, the showrunners are having a terrible time wrapping things up properly. The rumour is that Martin is also having a terrible time finishing the last few books despite already knowing the general beats he wants to hit because everything is so sprawling in his story. Anyway, the showrunners of the television series are finishing up in a way that you both perfectly already described- straggly, compressed, lumpy and rushed.
What this has to do with Eva Luna, I'm not so sure.
