Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace': Week It Doesn't Matter Anymore

Over a long, cold, rainy weekend, I quietly and with little or no fanfare, finished War and Peace. The conditions were ideal for hours spent reading in a cozy chair, so that's exactly what I did. I feel a natural sense of accomplishment, but I can't help but notice that my life has been profoundly changed in the past by much shorter books, and this time around, 1200 pages later, I don't feel very different. It was good, and it is worth the effort, and Tolstoy does not waste a single one of those 1200 pages. But that said, Anna Karenina was better, at least for me. When I finished Moby Dick, for example, I felt exhilarated, and like I had finally learned the meaning of a universal truth about Melville and that novel, but with War and Peace, I feel no such thing. Maybe it doesn't help that basically no one I know has ever read War and Peace because it is so absurdly long, and maybe it was never going to live up to the time it took to finish. I wouldn't really recommend reading it to anyone, but I will go ahead and endorse the upcoming BBC adaptation, which looks really lovely. No official trailer yet, but I'll share it when it comes out.

Now on to the most important issue: what should be my next big fat book?

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week Unknown and Irrelevant

It makes me very, very sad that it is now July and I'm still reading this thing -- I can't even remember my original goal but I definitely didn't see this book stretching out for six months of 2015. That said, I know that when I finally finish it, I will have no regrets and will become incredibly smug about having finished it, regardless of how long it took me.  For some amazing reason, I had a lot of momentum with War and Peace this week, and managed to read 100 pages without consciously forcing myself to, which is especially noteworthy because I am in the midst of the most war-ish part, which includes many long descriptions of regiments and their positions and flanks and so forth. Napoleon's army is finally heading for Moscow, which means that all the characters are being forced back together, finally, and resolutions are in site.

I just hope the 100 page accomplishment doesn't make me lazy in the coming weeks, because it would be great to polish this thing off before August.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week ?

I finally found myself getting back into War and Peace this past week, and I don't just mean I finally picked it up -- I mean I genuinely enjoyed what I was reading, and even got caught up in it a bit. I'm in the final stretch of 400 pages (ha), so many of the storylines are creeping toward their eventual conclusions, which is what all novels are expected to do, but in this particular case that seems like a revelation and is hugely rewarding. Princess Marya and Rostov had a "meet-cute" when he liberated her from her estate peasants, who had decided it wasn't fair for her to flee Napoleon's army while they stuck around, and I think they had a point there...but more importantly, Rostov and Marya immediately fell in (kind of) love. This was a totally unexpected turn -- I've been very distracted by the more central characters and frankly these two are my least favorite. But the fact that the sub-plots are resolving themselves gives me the momentum I need, which I appreciate.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Weeks 12, 13, 14, 15, 16? Who can say anymore...?

I remain in some kind of page 712 of War and Peace purgatory. The fact that I used to sit down twice a week and read 50 pages of that thing at a time is utterly mind-boggling, but that really summarizes the nature of Michigan in January vs. May. I cannot even remember what it was like to have snow and ice on the ground, but I know it must have occurred, and presumably I dealt with it by reading this enormous, ridiculous book.

The really great thing about this whole experience is that when I finally got around to picking it up again, it was as if no time had passed. I am so deeply embedded in this world that all the characters and situations immediately came back to me, and it was very easy to dive back in. That is essential with a novel of this size, because ordinarily reading it would take so long that the average reader would forget the beginning before they made it to the end. I had a similar experience when reading Moby Dick; it took months and there were some extended breaks in there, but whenever I picked it back up, it was as if no time had passed.

I promise I won't post anything about War and Peace again until I have actually read more of it and have something new to say.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Weeks 10/11

I didn't bother posting last week because I read a pretty negligible amount and had very little insight to share. It's funny how when you're not reading War and Peace, there isn't enough time in the day for all the things you want to do, and when you are reading War and Peace, time couldn't possibly move more slowly. I'm normally a very fast reader, but this text is really testing my patience; obviously, I'm 11 weeks into reading it, which is frustrating enough, but even on a page-by-page level, I get frustrated. Sometimes I catch myself checking the page number multiple times per page, assuming I've read much more than I actually have, and then I find myself in a frustrating cul-de-sac of impatience and boredom mixed with an overwhelming need to finish this damn thing.

A few more stray thoughts on Tolstoy, War and Peace, and long books:

- I absolutely hate it when heroines experience some form of heartbreak and then become physically ill. That's not a real thing, and it's especially not a real thing if the person who broke your heart was practically a stranger to begin with

- This novel is exquisitely foot-noted, but there is an utter lack of footnotes regarding social conventions of Moscow in the early 1800s, so I really struggle to figure out what behavior is unusual or immoral. Some of the roguish male characters don't seem that bad to me, but I think that's because I'm missing the subtext re: gambling/drinking/racing carriages/dueling/prostitutes?

- Speaking of dueling, it rarely ends with one dead guy and one living guy, so what exactly is the point? If 90% of duels end in weird accidents, for example, why continue dueling?

- Must we constantly be reading characters' first and last names over and over and over again? Last night I was reading a scene in which a doctor's wife was entertaining some soldiers (once again with the moral ambiguities -- is she supposed to be slutty in this case?) and her full name was dropped in every reference, and in one particular sentence it was used something like five or six times. I cannot with that. I also can't tell if this is a deliberate stylistic choice (the implied irony being the formality of her name paired with the impropriety of her behavior), or is it just to help us keep track of the 200 or so characters in this thing?

Big Fat Book : 'War and Peace' Week 9

And just like that, I'm beyond the halfway point and on what feels suddenly and distinctly like the downward slope toward the end of this enormous book (despite the fact that I still have another 500-600 pages left). 

The titular 'peace' is over, and we're back into the 'war;' a more accurate title would probably be "War and Peace and War," but I'll let it slide. Natasha remains a single girl in Moscow, so this war is going to be particularly rough on her. I also sense some impending duels, which is always exciting.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 8

I'm at the point in War and Peace when all the various character start making sojourns to "the country" and start having their Aha moments in Nature. Many of them are taught lessons by various peasants and farming types and wolves they've hunted. There is much eating of Russian peasant food and listening to Russian peasant songs and dancing of Russian peasant dances. Everyone is either unhappily married or happily engaged, but I suspect there will be a major reversal of fortunes on that front very soon.

On another note, I'm frustrated by the fact that I've felt like I was at the half-way point for at least two weeks now, and unless I somehow manage to find the motivation to power past page 700 this weekend (unlikely given that I have an impending baby shower for a friend and a woefully unfinished knitting gift) I will continue to languish there for at least another week. I'm losing perspective of the fact that I've somehow managed to read 550 pages of War and Peace while simultaneously finishing 15 books since January 1, along with working full-time, getting caught up on 'The Americans' and working on the above-mentioned knitting. I should pat myself on the back, but instead I'm going to continue feeling guilty that I haven't read more.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 7

Another week, another 50 pages. I'm languishing in War and Peace purgatory. As a seasoned veteran of reading this book, I have three important pieces of advice:

1. Never take a break. You will inevitably lose momentum and possibly even start reading other things you like better. If you truly need a respite from your long novel, try catching up back issues of The New Yorker.

2. Beethoven is the best and really the only appropriate background music while reading War and Peace. Try the Egmont Overture for the "War" and the piano concertos for the "Peace." Anything he dedicated to Napoleon is also a good choice.

3. Don't even do the mental math to calculate your finish date. Long ago I figured I'd finish in ten weeks at the rate I was reading; now at Week 7, I really regret ever getting that idea in my head. It's over when it's over, and no matter how long it takes, it's an accomplishment.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 6

This week I only managed another 50 pages for the complete opposite reason as last week's zero pages. I skipped 'War and Peace' in order to dig myself out of a reading rut, and as I result I delved into a half-dozen new books in an attempt to find something compelling, and it (fortunately or unfortunately?) worked. The goal of reading a gigantic book was not to become the focus of my reading, so I'm not beating myself up over it, but momentum is important with an undertaking like this, and I'm already itching a bit to finish it and start thinking about my next enormous book.

Sadly, now that my pace has slowed, the events of the novel are finally at the place I've been waiting for -- the titular "peace" portion. I don't remember enough about Napoleonic history to know how long this peace is going to last, but in the meantime every character is getting into all kinds of Tolstoyian intrigue; I'm going to attempt to make up for some lost time by really focusing on War and Peace for the next week, and I'm really desperate for Natasha's inevitable marriage proposals to start rolling in.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 5

Another week, another 100 pages. This week's reading flew by as I was finally able to really, fully engage with the characters and the plot.  Tolstoy spends a good 200-300 pages or so developing the characters and setting the stage, so I'm finally at the point when tension is building and actions are reaping consequences.

More importantly, I'm nearing the halfway point, and it brings me so much satisfaction to see my bookmark poking out of the middle of this enormous, heavy book.  I feel at this point I've read to the point of no return -- I've put enough time and effort into War and Peace (and made enough progress), that finishing the novel feels like an inevitability. I might regret writing that when I get to the 600 page mark or so, but right now the consistent, steady progress feels very encouraging.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 4

It was a tough week for my copy of War and Peace: I made me first major crease in the binding, out of sheer necessity, and then it had a glass of white wine spilled all over it. But somehow we still managed to be productive with all that booze sloshing around, because I finished Volume 1,  making my total progress 300 pages in three weeks. 

The latest section of the novel had the benefit of two marriage proposals in 50 pages, but then it was back to the Napoleonic war stuff. As much as I struggle to keep track of the cavalries and infantries and Hussars and Cossaks and whatnot, even the war stuff is getting better for me as the two central characters in that section of the novel, Andrei and Rostov, are really developing quite richly. I may have even laughed out loud at Rostov's ridiculous bro-crush on the Russian emperor. Really, I guffawed at Tolstoy.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 3

I managed to make it through another 100 pages (more like 85, but who's counting?) and propelled myself well into Part 2 of Volume I, which felt like some kind of minor accomplishment. Only another 100 pages until Volume II! I will say about Tolstoy that the very tidy division of his novels into distinct volumes, parts, and chapters, makes the whole endeavor so much more manageable and far less intimidating. Often when I fail to finish a long, difficult book, it has much to do with the structure (or lack thereof) and my inability to find good stopping points, which can make it impossible to return to the book.

I will also say that I'm happy to have made it through this section because it was not exactly the type of action I turn to Tolstoy for; it was largely composed of military stuff with an unfortunate amount of time spent with minor characters, and at this point I have a hard time evaluating which of them will be important in future and which will never be heard from again. If you've read Anna Karenina, you probably remember long stretches about Russian political theory or about agriculture, and the military elements in War and Peace serve a similar function. I'm hopeful that next week's sections will include a bit more of the other characters back at home.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 2

I've made a very respectable dent in my first week with War and Peace, reaching the 100-page milestone last night. My initial thought is that this will not fit into my normal reading routine the way I had hoped; in a normal week, I read when I feel like it, and somehow I manage to transform it all into a blog. But there is no way I'm going to get through War and Peace without being much more deliberate. I made it all the way to Sunday night without even cracking the thing open, although I did find that it makes the perfect prop for my Kindle when I'm watching 'Gilmore Girls' in bed. In the end, the only way I managed to conquer those 100 pages was to set aside specific, uninterrupted time to read, and I had to neglect my usual TV habits, which is tough in January when there is so much great TV. The saddest thing of all is that those 100 pages were not easy, and as a result I haven't picked up any other book all week, which is not sustainable. I think it's going to take a few weeks to find a War and Peace routine that works for me.

On a more positive note, I absolutely love the novel thus far. It's not super surprising because I loved Anna Karenina and I've enjoyed more Napoleonic history than the average person.  The narrative thrusts the reader into several existing, high-stakes conflicts (inheritances, engagements, husbands going to war, etc.) from the very beginning so it's not hard to get "into" the book. As much as I loved Anna Karenina, I definitely struggled with those very long passages on Russian agrarian politics, and at close to 1200 pages, I suspect War and Peace will have some of the same, but thus far it's been very compelling, engaging narrative and charming characters.

Big Fat Book: 'War and Peace' Week 1

As I alluded in my Reading Resolutions post last week, you can expect more posts on extremely long, heavy, doorstop quality book in the coming year. Even as recently as last night, while I blazed through a short, excellent novel, I questioned my motivation for this undertaking. I read constantly and I generally feel that I read "enough," so that's not the reason. I'm also someone who gets an immense amount of satisfaction from finishing a book and crossing it off a list, so a 1,000-page novel is not the most efficient way to satisfy this need. 

Part of it is certainly an ego thing; I consider myself to be well-read and I even take the time to maintain a blog about my reading habits, so I'm going to read the books that I know I, of all people, should be reading. I've also had the good fortune of generally being really pleased with any long novel I've taken the time to finish, so I don't feel like I'm undertaking something completely unpleasant. And finally, I have always read many different books at once, so by committing to a long novel, I'm not necessarily giving up all other, shorter books in the meantime; I'll just be spending less time with those.

I kicked around a few different ideas before finally settling on War and Peace. I've never read Atlas Shrugged and I sort of want to, but I don't want anyone to mistake me for an actual, literal Ayn Rand fan. I also thought about Infinite Jest, but in some ways it feels wrong to undertake such a modern behemoth when there are many older, canonical books still going unread by me. I read Anna Karenina with my book club two years ago and really loved it (more on that in a future post), and as far as extremely long classics go, War and Peace is definitely genre-defining. Plus it's cold and snowy outside, so a Russian novel seems more appropriate than, say, In Search of Lost Time, which feels very springy to me. Maybe I'll take on that challenge if me and War and Peace make it through winter together. If nothing else, I'm motivated by the fact that the enormous novel is essential to the structural integrity of a half-full bookshelf designated for Russian literature (half-full because I hate Russian literature but feel a sense of obligation to keep trying).

I hope some of you will be equally motivated and try reading along with me. Expect a post on War and Peace every Wednesday until I finish it (even if that means I have to write a post in which I admit I read none of it because I had too many episodes of 'The Fosters' to get caught up on).