DNF (did not finish) | Book Chatter

I waited a long time to get this one from the library but at about seventy-five pages in, I found myself really hating these characters and scrabbling to keep track of what the heck was going on and who was saying what.

Richard is a doctor and rich. He invites his wacky sister and her family to spend a week in the English countryside with his family (also whacked). Sounds like the makings of a perfect novel but the stream of consciousness narrative really turned me off. Much of it is rambling but there are moments when the story started to get good, only to get lost in the rambling again. THAT infuriated me.

I was going to tough it out, but after a day of brooding, I decided to just put it down for good. Why bother with a book that’s just not doing it for me? Add another DNF (did not finish) to the pile.

As much as I wanted to keep going with this one, I couldn’t force myself to finish it. It was long listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and it started off great and included everything that a girl could ask for in a book, but around page 100 it began to lose me, and by page 200, I fell out of love with it.

Reading it was like a great first date, with the second date being only ho-hum. I took a brief survey of readers on Facebook and then checked out Goodreads and the consensus was to put it aside. I may pick it up again if I hear one of you raving about it, but for now, it has been placed in DNF (did not finish) status.

My apologies to Hollinghurst. You had me at “Hello” but lost me when my fave character no longer appeared in flesh and blood.

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