Review: Depressing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2013
It would be difficult to find a more thoroughly depressing book than this novel - not because of the tragedy in it-tragedy may be and often is fine and inspiring-but because its slow moving narrative is the record of lives utterly worthless and pointless. Not one of the book's characters, important or unimportant, ever rises to the level of ordinary decent humanity. Not one of them shows a spark of loyalty, honor, devotion, generosity, real friendship or real affection. The book traces, at great length and with much repetition, the main character's mental, moral and physical disintegration. So far as style, the novel is well written and convincingly depicted, but it was the longest 196 pages I've ever read.