A review by elenajohansen
Certain Women by Madeleine L'Engle
1.0
DNF after Chapter 1 - Norma. And why is it named for Norma, anyway? She has a few minutes of conversation and then leaves the boat. She doesn't seem important at all compared to the over-abundance of other characters.
That excess of characters is exactly why I gave up so early. In one 24-page chapter, the reader is given the names of 22 separate characters. Only a handful of them are physically present, but most of the chapter is David monologuing his past, the many wives and yet more children. (Though I still don't know ALL their names, because I only counted seven of the nine wives promised in the blurb, and seven of the eleven kids.)
On top of that, there are 16 mentions of King David--as opposed to Actor David, the main character's monologuing father--plus several mentions of six other Biblical figures related to King David's story.
On top of that, there are ten fictional characters (mostly from Shakespearean plays) mentioned a total of 26 times.
And that's not including all the times the ACTUAL characters who are PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE STORY use EACH OTHER'S NAMES IN CONVERSATION.
By the time I was done with those first 24 pages, I felt like a good 10% of the word count is just NAMES. Oh, because when I was tallying the fictional character mentions? I didn't even include that the name of the boat they're all on is Portia.
So I am quite simply DONE. In order to write this annoyed, spiteful review, I had to take a pen to the first chapter, skimming it several times to circle and number all the names, and even after going through it that often and taking notes, I STILL couldn't tell you accurately who is who beyond the four major characters who do most of the actual talking. Is Myrlo David's third wife or his fourth? Did he actually marry Harriet, does she count? It's not clear from what he said.
I was so confused, it was beyond frustrating, and at the end of it all, I honestly don't understand why I'm supposed to care.
That excess of characters is exactly why I gave up so early. In one 24-page chapter, the reader is given the names of 22 separate characters. Only a handful of them are physically present, but most of the chapter is David monologuing his past, the many wives and yet more children. (Though I still don't know ALL their names, because I only counted seven of the nine wives promised in the blurb, and seven of the eleven kids.)
On top of that, there are 16 mentions of King David--as opposed to Actor David, the main character's monologuing father--plus several mentions of six other Biblical figures related to King David's story.
On top of that, there are ten fictional characters (mostly from Shakespearean plays) mentioned a total of 26 times.
And that's not including all the times the ACTUAL characters who are PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE STORY use EACH OTHER'S NAMES IN CONVERSATION.
By the time I was done with those first 24 pages, I felt like a good 10% of the word count is just NAMES. Oh, because when I was tallying the fictional character mentions? I didn't even include that the name of the boat they're all on is Portia.
So I am quite simply DONE. In order to write this annoyed, spiteful review, I had to take a pen to the first chapter, skimming it several times to circle and number all the names, and even after going through it that often and taking notes, I STILL couldn't tell you accurately who is who beyond the four major characters who do most of the actual talking. Is Myrlo David's third wife or his fourth? Did he actually marry Harriet, does she count? It's not clear from what he said.
I was so confused, it was beyond frustrating, and at the end of it all, I honestly don't understand why I'm supposed to care.