I don't really have a real post this week, primarily because getting through Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann has been such a struggle for me. The book is long, but that doesn't usually intimidate me. What is more frustrating is that most of the book is written as a giant sentence stringing together stream of consciousness thoughts from our protagonist.
It is a cool idea, and as a recent book dealing with the first Trump administration and the world, it is an interesting concept. But I am not getting into it. The stream of consciousness means that I have no idea what is happening as there's so much being thought at the same time, and I don't really know who the characters are or care about them. You'd probably think that we get a very intimate look at our protagonist, but I don't feel that way. I feel like she's behind this wall of thoughts where I only get a brief look at what she's thinking or feeling at any time. It's just impossible for me to parse and make sense of and make a connection through.
There's also places interspersed with traditional narration of a mother lion. These bits make more sense. Yet I am not sure how they connect, except that both point of view characters are mothers I suppose. It is just hard to figure out what has meaning here, there's so much being thrown at me that I'm skimming most of it and it just takes energy.
I'm really not sure if I'm going to finish this. It is a long book to get through if you don't enjoy it. I'm trying for now, but this is certainly the least I've enjoyed a book in a very long time.
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