I hate not finishing a book. Even more, perhaps, I hate trying to slog through something when there are many good books out there waiting for me to pick them up. So, I try to cut my losses. Especially when the book is from the library and therefore cost nothing and has a due date.
My latest failed attempt to finish a book was Angelica by Arthur Phillips. The interwebz tell me that this is a ghost story set in Victorian England and told from three perspectives. That sounds fascinating, no? Except I couldn’t even make it through the first character’s perspective. The first point of view is that of Constance who is obsessed with her uterus. The fact that a real live child issued from that uterus, the fact that her uterus can’t handle any more bebes, the fact that sex with her husband could kill her, the fact she fails as a woman because she can’t have bebes or pleasure her husband. She was absolutely insufferable. I don’t want to negate the trials of living with infertility or of living in a society where womanhood is defined by motherhood and sexual submission to one’s husband, but I also don’t want to read about a character who has nothing in her life or brain except her uterus.
Whether the ghost story/three points of view redeemed this book… I have no idea. Perhaps they did. This book gets really mixed reviews on the amazon, so I suppose it is a love it or hate it sort of book. I will leave the loving vs. hating up to you, since I can’t trouble myself to finish this one.
Don't Take My Books Away 