To Have or Have Not review

Full disclosure: To Have and Have Not became a did not finish for me.

I was about 50 pages before the end of the book, pretty well on track, but story-wise I suddenly ran into a brick wall, and it couldn't be done. Have you ever had that happen?

I wasn't exactly enjoying the book before that, but it was readable enough, and I wanted to get it done in time for my review today for http://classics.rebeccareid.com/ but all of a sudden, it took a turn that I didn't understand. I don't mind unexpected turns in books. In fact, I like them a lot. But when it's a turn I don't understand, then I lose my way a  bit. Well, more than a bit, here.

Ever since I read A Moveable Feast - and loved it - http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2008/09/moveable-feast-by-ernest-hemingway.html I've been wanting to read Hemingway's novels.

Having battled my way through two thirds of To Have and Have Not, now I'm not so sure.

Anyway. Harry Morgan is a boat captain who runs smuggled goods between Cuba and the United States. As the book opens, he's just turned down a job of smuggling people rather than goods. As he finishes his meal in the cafe they met, the men who wanted to hire him are gunned down in the street.

From there ... okay, To Have and Have Not is probably one of the most disjointed novels I've read. Or two-thirds read. It jumps around points of view, from first person Harry, to third person Harry, to third person other characters, back to Harry ...

Apparently Hemingway revised the novel several times, and it's easy to see in its choppy narrative and barely-there plot.

The lost generation could, perhaps have not found this one again. ;)

Whose Body

My novel for the Classics Circuit tour - found here - http://classics.rebeccareid.com/ - is Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers.

Short, slightly vague review follows:

Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers

It's always interesting reading the first book of a series – seeing the author's thought-processes and the way they start working out their characters.

Whose Body is the first novel in the series by Sayer featuring Lord Peter Whimsy.

Lord Peter is a man of many interests, one of which is crime, in which he dabbles here and there.

He's called on to do a little bit more than dabbling when a body is found in the bathtub of a respectable family.

I was very curious to read Whose Body – I've been a longtime fan of Agatha Christie, and I enjoy finding crime authors from the same era.

Whose Body is a short novel and – for me – didn't really pack a big punch, although it was readable, and I enjoyed the characters.

As I understand it, Sayers' novels improve greatly and because it is a time-period I love reading about, I spent a very pleasant few hours with Whose Body.

For me; it was enjoyable and diverting rather than outstanding, but I am looking forward to reading more of Sayers' novels – I liked her writing style very much. :)

7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!

Sanctuary by Edith Wharton

Go here: http://classics.rebeccareid.com/ for details. :D

Dammit, I just looked at the blog and this is two days late! I thought I was scheduled for the 15th, not the 13th - really sorry!

Um. The nicest thing I can say about Sanctuary is that I finished it. It's 94 pages long, and it really kind of dragged.

I understand it's an early work of Wharton's and I haven't read anything else by her, so I can't compare, but Sanctuary - to me - read like a tired, dry little morality tale. And it IS a morality tale, but I felt like I was eating sand. Which could have been my mood, or the fact I nearly fell asleep while I was tring to finish it, or any one of a dozen things.

Kate Orme is about to get married when her husband-to-be lets her in on a family secret that is set to inform the rest of Kate's life.

She chooses to marry Denis Petyon anyway, and the story picks up in the future - Denis having passed away several years ago, leaving Kate to raise their son, Dick.

A rising architect, Dick finds himself with a moral dilemma after the death of a friend and colleague.

There's a lot going on for such a short piece, but I nearly found myself skimming parts of it that felt more like exposition than anything. The best thing in Sanctuary is Clement Verney - a young woman of unashamed ambition, who breathes life into the pages and the characters.

4/10 Why am I here?