I Like Books

A bit over three stars, perhaps, now.

I'm enjoying the minutiae of life as depicted in the book. But I have a difficult time with the Jamie character and am trying to figure out why so many readers are ga-ga over him.

He basically rapes Claire. He becomes mister-I'm-the-man-and-you'll-do-what-I-want after having been gentle and sane for a long time. It's like someone struck a critical area on his head and accidentally altered his personality with the blow, altered it significantly but with subtlety.

He apologizes for small things and then beats Claire into submission. Irritatingly, not a lot of internal or external dialogue is dedicated to this change in personality, though there's certainly lots to explore. Hopefully, it will be addressed and Jamie will see the huge errors in his ways.

I can't tell if the Scottish accent is spot on or way off or whatever, but it works to evoke the idea of the place and time, so no problem there. Somebody said somewhere that the dialogue sounds too modern sometimes and this is mildly accurate, but no big deal.

Still reading, so things could change....


UPDATE: I've finished and I'm inclined to give it five stars, despite my criticisms. It's complicated and imaginative and makes you care about the characters, the situations, and the issues. I quite liked it.