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When I was revising my first (not so long) novel over a period of years, I spent the most time on the initial chapters. I went over those repeatedly with fresh energy every time. But by the time I’d get to the second half of the book, I often couldn’t bear to return to the raw emotions that I knew would inevitably come up. Also, at that point, the action was very fast-paced, and I’m sure that made me read and revise more quickly.
I’m not sure other authors have this experience, especially when they’re writing very long novels. But at times, after having read hundreds of pages of a book that starts off perfectly and quickly draws me in, my interest withers. Good beginnings, hurried or unsatisfying endings.
I’d include Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Goldfinch, which came out last year, in that unfortunate category. Every detailed scene for most of the way through was a pleasure to read. And then, I got tired of all the scenes of smoking, snorting, and shooting up drugs. The philosophical final several pages about art and life were lovely in their sentiments, yet seemed a little breathlessly naive and too bunched up in one place. And it’s the ending you most often remember. Thus for this post I have reviewed...
3 Long Novels That Might Grab You and Not Let You Go
The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron is a satiric novel set in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It’s a black comedy, absurd, complex, character-driven, with a full awareness of the screwy politics of the region. No one is exempt from Gavron’s intense gaze (including the U.S.), though outright judgment is mostly withheld so that readers can come to their own conclusions.
The settlement at the center of the action is begun almost accidentally, and it’s threatened with dismantlement by the Israeli government numerous times. Will the bulldozers follow through this time? No matter how you feel about the growing Israeli West Bank settlements that most of the world deems an impediment to lasting peace, The Hilltop offers a glimpse into real-seeming individuals pursuing their beliefs, religious and secular. I find it pleasing that this novel and author have won kudos in Israel.
The Secret Place by Tana French is a psychological mystery, like her previous volumes featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. Mysteries are usually what I read only when a heretofore literary writer comes out with one. Not being snobbish here, but it’s rarely the plot of a novel that draws me to it, but the language and characters. Of course, plot keeps me reading, like it does anyone else. Tana French’s novels are pretty much all highly enjoyable. This one did go on a bit long, considering it was nearly all conversation among detectives and the suspect girls at a girls’ school, all on a single day. Cinematic, nonetheless, if by that one means you can readily picture the scene. A bit of supernaturalism seemed tossed in for no good reason. Still, I was never bored and will read anything French writes.
Some Luck by Jane Smiley covers several generations, following a sincere Iowa family from 1920 to the early 1950s. Smiley plans to continue their stories in two sequels. While I enjoy long family sagas in general, and I admire the majority of Jane Smiley’s work, I didn’t get as fully engaged with this group of people as I expected to. Her best scenes, I thought, were those from the point of view of a young child. Already a bestseller, Some Luck certainly has broad appeal, and the writing is as accomplished as ever, but for me it lacked a certain bite.
Copyright (c) 2014 by Susan K. Perry, author of Kylie’s Heel
