“A Tale Of Two Cities” is one of those books. You know the ones i mean: A much-lauded piece of literature that apparently means something, that has intrinsic historic value, that will better the lives and expand the minds of those who read it. This bad boy is the literary equivalent of Mozart or Bach. Apparently good for your soul. Apparently important to have read. Apparently.
One thing I did not know about Charles Dickens prior to reading this book is just how dang funny the guy is. Seriously. Somehow he managed to write an entire story about the french revolution (thats what the book is about btw) and not once make it seem gloomy or depressing. Quite often while reading you must stop yourself and say: “wait, i just read a paragraph detailing the slaughter of every living person in a castle.” whoa. You would think after readin this book that everyone wore a smile during the French Revolution, and when it was all over gave each other a pat on the back and went home. OR that this one section of human history transpired entirely within the framework of a children’s television show. Either way, the blackest of comedy.
But is it good? Well for one your going to be bored out of your mind. For about…. 5/6ths of the book. Only at the very end do all the story arcs occuring simultaeneously finally converge to create the raw human emotion that you’ve been looking for. In that way you can liken this book very much to the movies: ”Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrels.” There is just so much stuff happening that seems unrelated that only in the very end does it all come together and you, the idiot reading, spends the next 3 hours going “oooooh”.
Yes i just compared Charles Dickens to Guy Ritchie.
Unfortunately for you: if you do anything other than read the book in it’s entirety you will walk away thinking it is the biggest piece of garbage ever written. Very similar with Lock,Stock: I had a number of friends over to watch it; They all had to leave prior to the ending. They all probably thought it was the dumbest most boring movie in existance. Same Deal. If your gonna read it, you gotta COMMIT son.
So once it’s all said and done: Is the book worth reading? Probably not. It’s a great book but its just too much of a task to get through. The payoff is big, i must say. The whole Sydney Carton: ”It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” really gets you in the end. Brings some tears to the eyes. That alone makes most of the book worth it. It IS a great book. But after 9-12 hours of reading? no thanks. If i wanted to cry that bad I’d creep an ex’s facebook while listening to The Decemberists or Bon Iver.
Overall: It’s a classic. But not enough return on the investment.
Listening to Modest Mouse… and Bon Iver.
Tags: Books, Charles Dickens
December 10, 2008 at 4:35 pm |
“If I wanted to cry that bad, I’d watch The Notebook. Alone.”
Uh, trust me on this one.