John Sharkey’s Reviews > Germinal > Status Update

I've heard wonderful things about this; I started with Zola at L'Assommoir. Hoping the family name with the daughter Nana would be equally as good, I dabbled in it, for me it wasn't, and my fear is now nothing will be on par enough to compete with the mother's drunken woes so haven't gone further with Zola.

L’Assommoir is where I started as well. Nana was a bit of a let down, kind of a bargain store Flaubert. Then I read the very first book in this series and it was fantastic, got me back in the spirit of things! Germinal is my favorite so far!

Exactly the same route I had planned, dude; you took the leap onto the first but I swayed onto a completely different path. Good to see the faith can be restored, thanks buddy. Enjoy 👌

I feel like L’Assommoir set too high a bar. Fortunes set me straight and now I’m fully on board. I have Le Debacle, La Terre and La Bête Humane waiting in the wings. I gotta say though, Nana’s brother Etienne is a real shit stirrer!