Little, Big

About two weeks ago I was rearranging my books and Little, Big caught my eye. I had been thinking that it was kind of a shame I hadn’t finished it. I decided to give it another try. But this time around I established some ground rules.

Basically I read much faster than my usual pace. Kind of a slow scan at times. Anything that seemed too detailed or too weird I skipped. Don’t remember doing that since college.

Yesterday I finished it. I will not give away the ending. Suffice it to say that with the exception of the development of a very strange character, he pulled it off.

Did I understand everything that happened? Definitely not.
Might I have understood more if I read slower? No doubt. But I probably would not have finished the book.
Am I glad I finished the book: Yes.
What was the highlight of the second half: Auberon (Smoky and Alice’s son). He has two relationships and an adventure that are by and large beautiful and insightful. Sometimes touching.

There is still the plethora of characters to get through. Some are annoying; some endearing, and some totally perplexing. Bottom line: There are too many characters.

Then there’s the issue of his punctuation. Although it’s extremely correct I sometimes find his syntax bordering on unintelligible. Or maybe undecipherable. My bias is that I get lost in long sentences. And this book is full of long sentences. Overly long.

That’s the thing about Crowley’s writing. He has a wonderful command of English. That part is a pleasure. OTOH I think he gets carried away in detail. In addition there are numerous subplots in this book. I don’t think the story would suffer at all if about one-third of them weren’t included. OK, I’ll say it: The book is too long.

If I’ve inspired you to think about considering possibly trying to reconnect with this book I have a suggestion. Go ahead. Read the last paragraph. I dare you.

I’ll just say this: It’s really beautiful.

Ed