A woman who reluctantly joined a book club at the advice of her best friend is quickly realizing that any book with more than one clear storyline is beyond her ability.
The realization came when she went to continue reading after putting the novel down for a few days.
After struggling to remember who is who, she went back into the previous chapter and realized that these aren't even the same characters.
"Is this a different book?" she asked herself. "Maybe this was a book of short stories or something like that?"
But alas, it isn't. It's one of those books where the different storylines will run parallel until the final moment when they come together.
It's one of those books where the different storylines will run parallel until the final moment when they come together.
Strap in...you're going to be in for the long haul if you want to see how this thing plays out.
"Ah fuuuuck," she says, rubbing her temples.
Her feelings for novels such as these are influenced by her previous experiences with books like Little Fires Everywhere, The Vanishing Half, Station Eleven, Cloud Atlas...
The list goes on.
"This is Olive Kitteridge all over again," she sighs.
The woman is referencing the fact that in that particular book by Elizabeth Strout, the narrative takes the form of 13 short stories that are "interrelated but discontinuous" in terms of the narrative.
"Never again," she said thinking about that book. "I'd kill myself before I ever subject myself to something like that again."
At least with this current book it seems like she will only have to keep track of two plotlines. Luckily, the plots share the same third person narrator so at least there is some consistency between the two narratives.
"All this thinking, just for book club," said the woman, glancing at her trashy beach reads--one character, one conflict. Oh, to be reading a Romance novel written at an 8th-grade reading level.
"This was supposed to be fun," she said, looking for spoilers online.