I've been struggling to figure out how to review this book. We haven't had book club yet, so maybe I'll form some more opinions. I went back and forth so many times reading this. It is SO LONG. Small type, complicated wording, and it takes people forever to get their point across. I know, I'm a total baby. I've been spoiled by reading clever, concise, modern novels lately I guess.
Sixty pages in I decided I was done. This poor boy's childhood. I can't handle cruelty toward children, even in 150 year old fiction. So.
But I came back to it, and at about 500 pages, I couldn't put it down. So YES, I recommend it, but just know what you're getting into. Decide if you can commit. I can never read books over a long period of time, it's just not something I can handle. So this took me a lot of squeezed in moments, almost all of Murphy's naps, and lots of late nights. I think I finished it in about 10 days.
There were a lot of things that I thought about while reading it. Like why some themes appear so much in literature. How sad it is that this book was probably accurate in having almost all orphans or single parent households. And why I didn't like the book for awhile. In fact, so many bad things kept happening, that I became suspicious of every new character that was introduced. BUT of course the story gets better, and of course I love a *relatively* happy ending.
It was hard for me to understand parts of this book. Like David's profession. A lot of the legal and business discussion was hard for me to figure out.
In the end, I like David's character, I loved his aunt, I loved Mr. Peggotty, and Peggotty, and of course Agnes (such a terrible name). I think Dickens had a sense of humor when he named his characters, and they were right on! (Except Agnes.)
This is my rambling review, I went through so many opinions and emotions while reading it that my review is equally scattered!
