Books etc.

Despite my fondness for rambling stories, this one didn't enchant me that much. I love a lot of thing about it, Flaubert's life timeline seen from 2 different point of views were great. Also the chapter about animals representation. But some chapters were just tedious and got me counting pages to the end. It was actually a surprise to me that Barnes brought out the matter about Flaubert's parrot at the end; though the supposedly poignant conclusion didn't cut ice with me. If I were to read it again I'd read the first chapter, jump to the end to follow the conclusion then read the rambling chapters in leisure.

All in all it was interesting. According to my GR database I've read Madame Bovary to the end but I'm not sure I did; at least it didn't create lasting impression the way Thomas Hardy's Far from Madding Crowd did. So I basically read a "biography" of a complete stranger/writer; would need to rectify that. Anyway, I did get interested to Flaubert because of this book and it's always a good thing.

About Julian Barnes' writing itself, he always sit on the fence for me. i've read one of his book to the end and another one started but couldn't finish it. I wouldn't look for his book specifically but might be tempted to read if I found an interesting ones.