I really really really really (really really really) like Wide Sargasso Sea! I'm not exactly sure why, given that the main character's house was just burned down, her mother hates her, everyone in their town hates the family, and basically everyone is miserable, but I have seriously enjoyed reading this book. For both sections of reading, I've wanted to continue into the next section, but I have (reluctantly) resisted.
I think one of the reasons I like this book is that it's the "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Personally, the scene where Jane first sees Bertha physically scared me when I read it last year; as in I was reading in my bedroom upstairs and had to come downstairs and continue reading with my mother in the room. Given this reaction, I'm actually totally psyched to see how Bertha (or Antoinette...?) came to be the way she was in that book.
I think another major reason that I like this book is that it's very simply written. Ever since The Sun Also Rises, I've been kind of addicted to minimalist-ly constructed sentences describing riveting subject matter, and Wide Sargasso Sea follows right along with this structure. I love how simple the book is to read, because you don't have to worry about parsing through what the words are trying to tell you, and you can focus on the implications of what they're telling you. (Mind you, I like a good 19th century novel as much as the next brooding hunk fan, but it's nice to have a break sometimes.)
I think this is a promising book, and I'm very excited to see what happens!
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