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Zarah Leander

Work work work, but finally a little time to read.

Been working, working, working; all day and almost night. Finally had some time to read.

New day, new session

The atmosphere of the cold and desolate country of northern Sweden, Jämtland, in the beginning of the 20th century is well depicted, but the story slows down at time; some parts are less interesting than others.

Yesterday and today I finally had some time to read, relieved of work.

It often seems as if SW is trying to create characters outside her social (upper) sphere but has no idea what such a character might really look like. They feel hollow; a feeling reinforced by the fact that the book is just journal blotters by the protagonist Carr and most of the ideas are expressed through dialog and not action.

This book is full of inconsistencies. Edmund Carr has written one of the foremost books on the Middle East, but never had the urge to travel outside Britain?

“I’ve had a good life on the whole. It was a bit of a struggle at first, my people were very poor, and the village school isn’t the best start for an education.” … “It wasn’t so easy in those days, over thirty years ago, and I hated having to ask my parents for financial help.”

Edmund Carr’s family was very poor, but not so poor that they couldn’t have helped him finance his university studies?

Until now I don’t think it’s a great novel. I’m a little bored. Somehow the writing feels a little lazy; indulgent and without structure.

The introduction states that this “is not a great novel.” Refreshing honesty.

‘You remember "rent"? It was one of father's words — rent to the ideal, to his own faith in human nature. You remember how he would trust strangers, and if they fooled him he would say, "It's better to be fooled than to be suspicious" — that the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the the devil.'

Retomei a leitura depois de um intervalo de quatro dias de estudos.

https://clajon.club/2021/04/25/as-lon...

https://clajon.club/2021/04/24/readin...