When reading becomes a chore
Or, a subtitle: November book club in review and what’s upcoming in the New Year (AHHH)
November’s pick was…decent. I would say, in the similar vein of October’s choice, it was pleasant enough. I would like to finish out the year with the least amount of ‘To Do’s’ on my plate so I will not be choosing a particular book to read this last month as I am trying to keep up with ALL the other everythings we mad eggs commit to in order to enjoy (??) the season.
lol
The Road From Belhaven
By Margot Livesey
Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5/5
Livesey takes us as readers to a small farm in 19th century Scotland where a young girl, Lizzie Craig, grows up raised by books, the land, and her stoic, hardworking grandparents. As she navigates the challenges of social conventions and a lack of power in the wake of a gift of the second sight, Lizzie builds a life of her own and tries to face the turmoil that comes her way.
Unfortunately this book didn’t quite land the way I had anticipated it would and the magical realism element fell flat. I was enjoying the backdrop of rural Scotland so much and felt like at first I had an understanding of each character’s motivations and way of life. Things dropped off somewhat as Lizzie moved into adulthood and the second half of the book just got boring. For most of it I felt as if the author failed to allow for a full sense of emotional depth to take place and instead continued to rush through events in order to get to some essential moment in Lizzie’s life that is built up through suggestive ‘visions’. A number of side characters were quietly introduced , popping up with more frequency yet with little in the way of memorable identities. In a way that felt like they were simply tools in order to push the plot forward and not individuals peopling a community and story so that felt a little wasted.
I also lost interest in Lizzie as the story went on. She inevitably falls into a victim mindset and yet, we are supposed to root for her. It’s hard to root for someone who makes a large number of selfish and cold decisions and then justifies them under the excuse of “but the viiiiisions”. Her character progression doesn't really have definitive backstory or context for it’s rapid and annoying changes. By the end I didn’t care what happened to her but at the start of the book I defintely caught Anne of Green Gables vibes so that was a disappointing unveiling. The other fault I found in the book was the lack of presence of Lizzie’s second sight, it felt tacked on and irrelevant to the story. I kept waiting for the big moment where her powers would be in any way essential to her development or experiences but…they simply were not.
Other than those issues I did feel the environment of the story was well designed. The reality of Scotland felt well rounded, the culture was authentic, the colloquial dialogue was accurate and I know it would make my Scottish proud mammy very happy. In fact it motivated me to go visit and explore the wilds of Scotland more than I ever have in my life so I would say that’s a win.
Unfortunately, since the book left me feeling apathetic and unwilling to explore more I honestly have no questions for personal reflection on it. Nor, do I have a favourite quote as nothing was truly memorable. Sorry for picking a little meh-meh read this time around but hopefully come the new year we will have some nice choices to lift our spirits in the post-holiday season slump.
SPEAKING OF NEXT YEAR….
This book club may potentially be finding itself unfolding within a new format. Mayhaps, video blogs are in our future. I have been thinking it might be fun to break out onto Youtube as a way to address all the bookish things and basically be a basic booktuber/stagrammer/tokker like every other person out there. Or….in classic over 30 year old millennial style…should I start a podcast? Ugh I hate myself for even considering this but it does sound fun goddamit. Do we need more people on the interwebs shouting out their opinions in all the various formats? No. Do I want to force my book taste onto you because I want to hand out my best bookish bits in order to feel like we are connected in some sort of lovely, global way? Yes. We shall see how it goes. Honestly it is very time dependent. I hope this year has been one of some eclectic and worthy reads of your time beloveds. See you next year.
After-Words Bookshop, Chicago, May 2023z