Loving a book so much you can't finish it?

[dangermousie]

Has that happened to anyone else?

I was reading Dorothy Dunnett's "King Hereafter" (which is a novel that posits the historical underpinnings of Macbeth) and I have a 100 or so pages to go and I have put it away and I cannot make myself pick it up.

It's not that I don't love it, or care for the characters, or lost interest. On the contrary. Just like in Lymond, you read for the first 10 or so pages and while the details of the 11th century Orkney and Norse society are interesting, you find the lead character rather boring and with no inner life (Dunnett rarely goes into her leads' heads). And then, it's like a switch flips on, and you just fall in love with the book and Thorfinn, so deep that you feel hurt when he does.

I love his intelligence, quiet fierceness, and dead pan humor. I love his deep love for Groa (who is one of the strongest and most intelligent women I've found in fiction). I love the fact that he is so different from the flamboyant, perfectly spoken Lymond (I hate when authors repeat themselves).

And I put the book away and can't read it because I know how it ends and so I stopped reading before things go South. And I can't seem to make myself pick it up. This is ridiculous. This is the equivalent of throwing a reader tantrum, or pretending that in my AU Thorfinn and Groa ruled happily ever after. It's silly, and pointless, and ruins the arc and I can't seem to make myself read it anyway.

But what can I say: just reading this:
"'You are telling me to take to husband the man who will kill you?'

'You say that,' he said, 'as if it cost me nothing. O Befind, whose fair body is the colour of snow; smile at me.'

And from his courage she took courage, and smiled."

makes me bawl. And I don't think I can take it.

Has that happened to anyone else?

P.S. Another wonderful King Hereafter quote:

"He slowed and stood, the sobbing tale of relief in his throat, and found dragged ajar the dangerous
door that led back to the things that were normal and dear."

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I LOVE King Hereafter – it was the first Dunnett novel I ever read, but your experience sounds just like mine! I kept reading closer and closer towards the end and starting all over again, so the first time I got to about 200 pages before the end, and began again and go to about 100 pages from the end and began again and forced myself to read through to the end (in a haze of tears and with a huge lump in my throat.) I’ve never been able to read it again though, because of that sadness to it. (And after I saw Sean Bean in “Macbeth”, I always, always think of him as Thorfinn now, even though Thorfinn’s described as dark-haired!)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I read Lymond first. I tried GoK, but gave up because the cover was so misleading (strapping kilted Scot holding a damsel), and because I flipped through it and made the crucial mistake of assuming that any one of the DD characters actually is the "authority" on the main character. I saw where Richard described Lymond as incapable of feeling (which is about the wrongest thing anyone could say) and decided I didn't want to read about such a man. A few years later I picked up another edition, was a bit puzzled for a few pages, and ended up spending the whole day literally in bed, not getting up for lunch or dinner, just reading.

I read KH a few years after Lymond and had the same experience. I tried it once and got bored. And then I tried it the second time and it just clicked and I couldn't stop turning the pages. Until I got to a certain point. And then it's almost a physical thing. I just can't pick it up, or if I do I just put it down. It's ridiculous.

Re: Sean Bean. I think he does have the manner of Thorfinn, if not the looks.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Actually...this happened to me with ROTS. *blush* I understand.

And this? Sounds like a great book.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great book

It is.

this happened to me with ROTS

So, did you manage to finish it, or is it still unfinished?

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

No, I finished it. (Partly so we could chat about it! hee!) It just took me longer than expected because once I got to the duel (knowing what would happen), I kept delaying the end. The portion where you are inside Anakin's head once he's trapped in the suit is so heartbreaking. Made that scene in the movie 10x more effective.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

You should read the book I gave you afterward!

Not that I'm promising it will be as good, but I want you to read it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll read "The Boleyn Girl" beforehand :) I am pretty unable to finish KH.

[ayn-rand-fan-13.livejournal.com]

Do you know if it's a happy ending? It helps to know beforehand, though I've heard that spoiling the ending is heresy.
Almost all of Phillipa Gregory's books are like that for me.
I get attached to almost every character of every book I read. Harry Potter is going to be impossible.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

>>Do you know if it's a happy ending?

If it's about macbeth, I doubt it. :-P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know the ending. That is precisely why I can't finish it. I read the last few pages and don't want to deal. (Even without this, as katranna says, when the main character is the historic basis for Macbeth, the chances for skipping through the meadow happily at the end are slim.)

[ayn-rand-fan-13.livejournal.com]

the main character is the historic basis for Macbeth

Last time I banged my head against a wall, I must have accidentally hit the off switch.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Though, if it’s any consolation, the “real” Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, lived to see his sons grown (at least according to the Orkneyinga Saga). Also, there’s a lovely book by an Orkney writer called George Mackay Brown called Beside the Ocean of Time, in which Thorfinn makes an appearance…

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Sean Bean. I think he does have the manner of Thorfinn, if not the looks.


Yeah, exactly! And I saw him play Macbeth, which makes me identify him with the character very strongly, so if he was that sympathetic as the somewhat more evil Shakespearean version, I can only imagine how great he'd be as the highly sympathetic Thorfinn ;)