no nonsense november

November's theme, on BookTube and the like, is Non-Fiction. Non-Fiction November. It's got a nice ring to it. However, I always have a non-fiction book on the go (currently Wintering by Katherine May) so I decided to stay alliterative but go off piste and, indeed, go 'no nonsense' by reading two of the biggest books on my shelves. I'll admit that I do suffer a bit from Big Book Fear (it's a real thing) so these books represent a real challenge for me.

The two big beasts in question are; Ducks, Newburyport (2019) by Lucy Ellmann, and The Count of Monte Cristo (1846) by Alexandre Dumas.

These are real chunky tomes. Ducks is 987 pages long, Cristo is 872. And they couldn't be more different in style.

Ducks is set in C21st America, its style is ultra modern stream-of-consciousness, and its USP is that it's written in one, very long, sentence (in reality it's about 8 sentences) but the author frequently uses the phrase 'The fact that..' where one might usually expect a bit of punctuation, and that phrase allows the reader to pause and draw breath whilst reading. The narrative follows the innermost thoughts/concerns/anxieties of an unnamed housewife as she goes about the task of making some cherry pies. Sounds baffling and ridiculous, and let's be honest, stupefyingly boring, but 50 pages in I'm intrigued and feel compelled to keep reading.

Cristo is set in C18th France and is written in the style of a dyed-in-the-wool classic, although this translation is very easy on the eye. The reviews promise me a riotous adventure, following the eponymous Count on his quest for revenge. I'm only about 20 pages in but I'm getting all the Treasure Island and Three Musketeer vibes that I was expecting, and I'm happy to go along for the ride. It's early days of course, as I'm only 3 chapters into the 117 on offer.

So there you have my no nonsense challenge for November. There is every chance they may spill over into December but so long as they keep my attention and keep me entertained you won't hear any complaints from me. The contrasting styles mean I can easily switch between them when I need a change of pace, though it's not so easy to mark my place in Ducks when there are no page or paragraph breaks. And this is, after all, why we read isn't it? Or, at least, why I enjoy reading, because I love to time travel between different lives, in different lands, in different times in history.




 

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