Sigh. I started Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, and it seemed to be going well. I wasn't overly enthused, but didn't actively hate it so I kept going.
Until. The wife of the character of Tom Builder dies in childbirth - in the middle of winter in a forest. Tom and his family are travelling around, scratching out a living while Tom looks for work.
So. His wife, who we have already heard Tom loves very much, dies. Tom digs a grave and buries her, and then exposes the baby to the winter elements. Cruel yes, but I can understand his 12th-century reasoning _ he still has two children to feed and no convenient wetnurse for the baby in the middle of winter. What stopped me was this:
Tom suffers an attack of the guilts, and he and his children return for the baby, who is gone. They lie down for a bit of a sleep and Tom wakes up to find a woman he had met before lying down with him. They do the horizontal tango, and she tells him she's been waiting for a man like him. Then Tom asks her to marry him, after they find out the baby had been discovered by a monk.
Tom suffers an attack of the guilts, and he and his children return for the baby, who is gone. They lie down for a bit of a sleep and Tom wakes up to find a woman he had met before lying down with him. They do the horizontal tango, and she tells him she's been waiting for a man like him. Then Tom asks her to marry him, after they find out the baby had been discovered by a monk.
That bugged me. Really?? So grief-stricken the DAY after your wife has died and you expose your newborn to a harsh winter, you shag some woman in the forest who you then ask to marry you.
I'm sorry, but I can't buy into that. Not even in the 12th century.
So. A new classic for February. I had a probables v possibles list here:
I'm thinking either Dracula, or Howard's End, to replace it. Otherwise, my list will just completely derail.
Sigh.
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