A Suitable Boy, and The Mists of Avalon
May 12, 2002 (9:11 PM) ( link )

To my surprise, A Suitable Boy has proven to be very pleasant reading. It's not gripping, or exciting, or particularly well written, but Seth does an excellent job of introducing and then presenting his characters, who quickly take on their individual roles without blurring into one another. The story moves extremely slowly; except for Meenkashi's (sp?) selfish action, nothing of much note has happened in Part One. Since the book is set in 1950s India, I expect big things to happen soon, external to the various families; it makes the plodding of the narrative so far more bearable to think that all hell will break loose before long.

The Mists of Avalon, on the other hand, is beginning to drag. The problem is that it's just not very entertaining. To use an old writing cliche, Bradley spends more time telling than showing; in particular, the various heartaches that the characters go through are painfully spelled out. Also, as non-religious as I am, Bradley's condescending and occasionally virulent attitude toward Christianity is getting incredibly annoying; I think I'll fall off my chair if she actually writes in a good, non-moronic Christian priest, or a member of Avalon who is not wise, gentle, etc. etc. etc.