A couple years ago. No, maybe 4 years ago, my mom and I went to see the movie A Very Long Engagement, which was really good and urged me to buy the book immediately afterwards. I was going through this really weird WWI phase where everything about it interested me. Why? I have no idea. It's not any different than other wars (interest wise) and normally I'm bored out of my wits hearing about senseless killing and battle strategies.
I guess buying the book marked the end of my phase, because soon WWI had been replaced by Tetris or crocheting or some other fancy. My phases don't last very long, and after their over, the subjects comletely disinterest me. It was kind of inconvenient when I was little, and every year I would get cat themed things for my birthday and when my parents traveled they got me Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts. No one understood my fleeting attention to passions.
Anyways, I picked up the book from time to time, but never got past the first chapter. I decided now would be a good time to finish it, and recommended it for the book club.
I forced myself to finish it in 2 weeks, but the reading plan wasn't much help. I just wasn't that interested, or did homework instead. (Good news: I finished all my homework for this term early, so now I'm just being a lazy ass.)
Finally, I was just like, "I don't have school tomorrow, might as well get it over with." I stayed up until 3 last night finishing it. It was the forcing myself to stay up the entire night that inspired me. I used to do it all the time last term, staying up incredibly late on school nights. It works, for some reason.
So about the book. It would help if I were from France, or had more knowledge of the country, because a lot of it seemed to depend on knowing geography and all that. Also, I often lost track of names of characters and became confused.
A lot of the book was just stepping out from the details and not really focusing, so that I could get the general idea of what was going on. Sure, it was romantic, I shed a couple of tears when the lovers are reunited, but it's very inconclusive.
Also, nothing really is revealed until towards the end, and then all of this information is smashed on you. It just wasn't really interesting until then. But I'm a person who doesn't have patience for question after question, and then sudden revelations (LOST?!)
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it for an American with no interest in the war, but I would reccomend the movie, which is easier to follow and has a more direct path and is more interesting. Gosh, I've got to rewatch that. Until next time.
