Alright. I didn't like this book. Not really. But I also kind of did.
Starting off reading, it was DRIVING ME CRAZY. The first hundred (or two hundred?) pages or so were torture. Because I do not like gothic novels, and this was definitely in that style. I mean, Wuthering Heights drove me crazy with all its drama and everything, but GEEZ. Like everyone was saying, NOTHING WAS HAPPENING and I didn't give a CARE about any of these characters. The snooty old lady, her grumpy and tortured and war-scarred son, the really ugly and grotesque daughter--so what? It was all about class, and the doctor's "place," and all these interactions between two different social levels or whatever, and I didn't care. I'm not a fan of the whole "we're English and we have class distinctions" thing--I guess some people find it romantic or foreign, but when it takes up that much of the book as the ONLY DRIVING FORCE it's just plain boring.
Then... things started happening. I cried when they had to "destroy" Gyp. (Then I went and found my dog and hugged her. She was under my dad's computer desk and didn't seem to want a hug.) Then things happened... and happened... and I kept reading, and it went faster, but really it wasn't so much that I cared about the characters, as it was that things were getting sensational and I had to know what happened.
Reading the ending parts at night in my apartment I left my bedroom door open so I could hear the noise from my roommates' TVs, computers, etc. Just so I didn't start hearing knocking or seeing things move out of the corner of my eye... ^^; And then I realized that part of what was so creepy about the book was that stuff happened both in broad daylight and in the middle of the night. It wasn't a "we're safe as long as it's daytime" kind of ghost/poltergeist/"stranger"--it was there freakin' all the time.
Some points for discussion:
(1) Alright, I was pretty horrified when the doctor fell in love with Caroline. After all the time he took describing how absolutely ugly she was, I couldn't see her in a new light like he did. I was just like, "Ew. What's wrong with him?" Anyone else? ^^;
(2) This book reminded me a lot of the other things we've read in that it's got the whole "is it his/her imagination? or is it real?" thing going on, especially with all the psychological drama. I'm just wondering--as has been the case of nearly all the other books--if anyone believes it was all entirely in their heads and everyone in the family just went crazy. (I tend to believe that the entities are really there like the characters think they are, and the mental issues are a way of explaining away things that are truly unexplainable.)
(3) That was a really interesting theory of ghosts, the thing about how people send out a part of themselves etc.... I don't think I've heard that before. Has anyone else heard of that type of ghost--the "stranger" or whatever that's a part of someone living?
Um... that's all I've got right now. Looking forward to what people have to say.
6 comments:
Haha I was also really confused by his love for Caroline but I guess that just makes me a superficial bastard because I was also put off by his extremely unflattering depiction of her.
This could definitely be read from the perspective of the characters being mentally unstable although way more happened that would be harder to explain than in some stories we have read.
I hadn't encountered that philosophy of ghosts either but I sort of liked it and found it interesting. Almost as if there is your soul going somewhere else and then a part of you that also stays behind.
The relationship between the doctor and Caroline did bother me, but I decided the house created his love for her so that he would be more involved with the estate. The age difference bothered me a lot, but I guess that wasn't very uncommon then...maybe.
I found the ghost theory very interesting. I'd never heard of human's creating "ghosts" that way. Maybe it makes some sense if you think that ghosts are just leftovers when someone dies. Maybe the ghosts are created by a strong emotion someone feels before dying and that emotion sticks around.
There's definitely debatable points about whether or not there is a ghost, which is probably the most interesting point of the book, because it is easy to see the argument either way.
Honestly, I think Waters included the weird romance just so she could drone on for another 200 pages.
And I disliked the entire book, page one to page one million. I think that if you want to use a narrator distanced from the action, pick one that isn't so damn boring.
The idea that a part of someone splintering off and manifesting as a ghost is common in Japanese lore after death. But I have also never heard of a ghost as a part of someone who is still living. It is quite unique I think.
My impressions (each in one sentence):
1. The Doc was a desperate gold-digger.
2. This story, more than others, had me really thinking they were all crazy and there was no ghost.
3. Maybe its a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of situation, and just one is projected into another entity?
I think that the first question is really important. I was certainly creeped out by the doctor's behavior. His attentions were not directed at Caroline, except to the extent that she represented a manifestation of the house. The way the romance was handled was just sketchy.
Post a Comment