Bleak House #1

Don't get excited - I haven't finished this already.

I'm about a third of the way through and, as it may take me a while, thought an interim post may be in order. Also, writing a blog post means that I feel I'm making progress whilst not actually having to be reading the book.

At the moment, we still have Rachel sleeping in our room, and she seems to start waking up if I have the bedside light on, so my reading is mainly happening under the duvet with one of those little lights musicians clip onto their stands whilst playing in an orchestra. This isn't conducive to reading for long periods of time, though it does have the side benefit of making me feel like I'm about 8, reading after I'm supposed to have turned out the light and gone to sleep! It may be time to move her next door.

Anyway. Bleak House is interesting, so far. It has quite a light-hearted feel about it, despite the name. I think the characters are all intended to be lightly comical, and the names are predominantly ridiculous. It's not laugh out loud funny, but it may have been when written. It's fairly readable, and certainly easier going than other Dickens novels (Nicholas Nickleby, I'm looking at you). However, so far it seems to meander without particular intent, and is more like a loosely connected series of anecdotes than a novel. I do like to feel that there is narrative drive in a work of fiction and that the author is aiming for something...so far the reading experience is much like the last Harry Potter book where they wander around a forest for 600 pages. Apologies to Dickens fans for comparing this to JK Rowling! I'm sure it will go somewhere at some point but it does feel as though it could benefit from an editor's severe red pen.

Perhaps I'll go and read some more when Only Connect finishes...