Status Updates From Five Weeks in the Country

Ok. A bit repetitious. An interesting look at Dickens and his family.

Part 2 ( Dickens’ perspective) is better than part 1 ( the perspective of Dickens’ 9 children). Either way, Dickens comes across as a self absorbed patriarch having a mid-life crisis and regretting the drunken invitation to Hans Christian Anderson to visit his family in the country. And not for friendship or altruistic reasons either.

So far, this one is such a snooze for me. It feels like the writer is trying way too hard with 19th century sensibilities to the extent of the narrator/s having a bland essence. Plus, it’s a little repetitive.

Part three through the eyes of Hans Christian Andersen has me a little confused. How can this man who struggles with the English language have such an in-depth conversation with Mrs. Dickens, or understand the intricacies of a play he’s seeing for the first time? I’m distracted by this.