Book completed
Sep. 15th, 2024 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeAll Clear, by Connie Willis. The second half of Blackout/All Clear. I definitely enjoyed rereading this book, and it was interesting to me that I remembered one of the surprises at the end, forgot one, and misremembered one (one for each of the three main characters).
I've given some more thought to what many reviewers see as their main issue with these books - the fact that each of the characters tends to keep thinking the same thing or having very similar experiences again and again. People tend to say, "enough already, we already got the point!" and think she could have made the books a lot shorter. Here's my insight: First, this repetition is entirely compatible with the way that Willis is keeping every character's point of view very much present moment, without longer-term reflection. This is how we get the surprises at the end. But equally important, perhaps, is that the artistic decision to keep going over and over things gives the readers their own experience of the Blitz lasting for a very long time and always having the same ongoing issues without being able to move forward - just getting through things and on to the next day. Even though it means a bit more work for the reader, it's a brilliant decision. Once we realize that, it becomes possible to just let the "same old thing" wash over us more while reading it, too.
I've given some more thought to what many reviewers see as their main issue with these books - the fact that each of the characters tends to keep thinking the same thing or having very similar experiences again and again. People tend to say, "enough already, we already got the point!" and think she could have made the books a lot shorter. Here's my insight: First, this repetition is entirely compatible with the way that Willis is keeping every character's point of view very much present moment, without longer-term reflection. This is how we get the surprises at the end. But equally important, perhaps, is that the artistic decision to keep going over and over things gives the readers their own experience of the Blitz lasting for a very long time and always having the same ongoing issues without being able to move forward - just getting through things and on to the next day. Even though it means a bit more work for the reader, it's a brilliant decision. Once we realize that, it becomes possible to just let the "same old thing" wash over us more while reading it, too.
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Date: 2024-09-15 11:34 pm (UTC)Yes, that actually sounds realistic. That is what I like about books compared to movies. There is more of a tendency of that.
It is so interesting to misremember an ending. I do that fairly often.
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Date: 2024-09-16 02:19 am (UTC)I actually found a long discussion on Goodreads, where other people were thinking the same incorrect thing that I had thought, so maybe the author kind of planned for that? I don't know.