This book has been torture. There was no one in this book vaguely attractive. In fact desperate as I was for a sympathetic character I found myself missing the drunken horrid father and wished he come back in and give them all a good smack around the ears. I know Australia says no, but really. This book was like wading through thick goo. Think teenage girl diary (or my own come to think of it). Same entry over and over again for years. It never occurred to me that I could abandon ship (how Master & Commander lives on). Then I saw today that I was reading the wrong book. I was bogged down in some oedipal tragedy while I should have been romping through the woods with trousers down and engines pumping while reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. I can't believe I spent so much time avoiding a book that wasn't even on the list. We were all stuck in something dreadful. Paul Morel stuck between his love for his mother and love for Clara or Miriam, and me stuck with a book I hated. Next!
