What I Just Finished....

A student recommended that I read The Thirteenth Tale.  I said I would when I had time, and she promised to bring it whenever I was ready.  As it turns out, I never really was ready.  The not being ready has to do with my own personality and the fact that I'm still an almost-drowning-gasping-for-air first year teacher.  So one day, the persistent tenth grader brought me the book.  No rush, she said.  I didn't rush.  I think it took me a month to actually start the book and quite a while after that to finish.

At first I found the novel to be wordy and a bit overly descriptive, as if Setterfield danced around what she trying to say by weaving such elaborate descriptions that once I'd finished the description it was hard to remember what was being described in the first place and whether or not it was important at all to the story.  Admittedly, some of this confusion comes from the fact that I was trying to read just before bed and would allow myself to doze off a bit, become confused, and have to reread.

I probably would've given up on the book if I didn't trust this student's literary recommendations so much.  Anyway, I soldiered on.  I reread what I'd forgotten.  And, finally, when I had committed to reading the book at an hour in which I was not likely to fall over from exhaustion, I discovered the glorious gift, that one so rarely finds, of a truly good story wrapped up the pages of this novel.

In her novel, Setterfield weaves vivid descriptions with such powerful emotion that captivates the reader wholly as she tells the story of two strange sisters.  The story is good; it is full of mystery and confusion and love and twists.  The protagonist is a lover of literature, so bits of the classics are thrown in here and there.

This novel is a prime example of why I love literature.  It is superbly written and reawakens a reader's thirst for words, that thirst most real readers have--to experience, to feel, and to understand.

P.S.  This is day three of my twenty-one day blogging adventure.  So far, so good.  Then again, it is only day three. . . .


Coming up Monday: Spring Break 2012--Our Trip to Montreal! See you there.