Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999)

Long, occasionally interesting, often tedious, with frequent unexpected changes in point of view in the middle of a paragraph to add confusion, this book was a slog for me. The main characters were well-developed and complex, as one would hope with so long a book with no particular plot, and mostly sympathetic. The details and philosophizing bogged down. The descriptions, in spite of being abundant, were often unclear. There was a lot of exposition that could have made it easier to understand that the author didn’t include, I guess so that she could make room for digressions into secondary characters or artistic process or philosophy. The outcomes of the various conflicts were often unsatisfying and of the whole book more so. I’m glad I’m finished and am not convinced I shouldn’t have just quit.… (mehr)