Wed. News: Frustrated with Fenno, Ivanhoe Galloping, and The Sweet Tooth!

This morning I continued my reading of Three Junes with my cup of darjeeling by my side. I'm nearly halfway through the novel, and Fenno is driving me crazy! It's not poor Fenno's fault. It must be my impatience with people who need to actively take charge of their lives. Fenno is a man who falls into things, passively goes along with the status quo, and does not take definitive action in the first half of the novel, over and over again, ad nauseam. That's the case so far. And I'm sure he will change, as he must, or why would Three Junes be a 2002 National Book Award Winner?

I'm not expecting Fenno to undergo a massive overhaul of his personality, not at all. I want him to stake a claim, actively demand this claim for something that he wants, but first he needs to know what he wants, which seems to be a problem for him. I think I need to hang in there, but he's driving me crazy, perhaps because he reminds me of a sibling of mine??? There it is! When characters in novels remind you of family members a bit too much, what do you do? My answer: I very much want to finish Three Junes, but it's clear I need to intersperse my reading of it with other novels.

Of course Ivanhoe is an excellent change of pace, and I conquered thirty pages of it this afternoon, but I need to add a third novel to my current reading pile. Last November I started reading Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. But I had so much reading for German Literature Month that I had to set it aside. Therefore! For the TBR Triple Dog Dare I will now start reading The Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. I liked what I read in November, so I can't wait for my respite. Comments welcome!