Books read in 2013: No. 1 -- Lost

by Gregory Maguire

Started: Jan. 1
Finished: Jan. 5

Amazon link: Lost

Notes: A couple of years ago, I read what is most likely this author's best known novel, Wicked. It was a fair book, but I don't remember being overly enthralled with it. Still, unless I'm really turned off for some reason, I like to give most author's at least a second chance. This time I thought I'd delve into his novel Lost, which is sort of appropriate since we're coming off the holiday season and this book has links to Charles Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge character.

Mini review: I hate to say it, but I didn't care much for this one. If anything, I liked it less than Wicked. Much like the title says, I felt lost most of the time. Events seemed random, often nonsensical. People just didn't act like ... well, people. The conversations made little sense. It was like trying to be in the mind of someone who was really out of touch with reality, and perhaps that was part of the point, but I simply couldn't follow most of the story. And then there were the sort of flashback scenes. I can't stand those, and have less and less tolerance for them the older I get. Also, there was some quite important information about that protagonist that's not revealed until the last 50 or so pages, making me feel cheated as a reader. Things picked up a little near the end, but that ending, it just sort of happens ... off screen ... and you never get to see it, and you really don't get to see much of the outcome for the characters ... people just sort of got on with their lives. Honestly, most of it seemed quite pointless to me, and the few interesting moments were swallowed up by all the banality. The writing itself wasn't awful, it's just that little of it made sense. Maybe I'm dense. Maybe I'm getting senile. But damn it, I'm a pretty well read person, and this was like nonsensical poetry to me. As much as I'm moaning, I didn't completely hate the book, though I do think it missed the mark and it missed its potential.