Reading: Freedom & Necessity

Thursday, 13 March 1997

I've been reading Steven Brust and Emma Bull's new book, Freedom & Necessity, for well over a week, now, and I'm less than halfway through. About a third. It's taking longer than most books by either of those authors would take, partly because I haven't had much time to read for the past couple of weeks, but mostly because it's an epistelary novel, which means I'm having trouble getting a handle on the characters and the action, though after a hundred pages or so, when I had gotten interested enough in the characters to want to know what happened to them, it started going faster. Both Brust and Bull ususally grab me faster than that.

The entire thing is told in the form of letters, journal entries, and the occasional newpaper clipping. The first journal entry demonstrates that the contents of the letters aren't always trustworthy; I'm waiting to find out that the characters have been lying in their journals, too.