a let down

Well, I finished -The Vision of Emma Blau.- Unfortunately, Ursula Hegi did not manage to change my feelings about multi-generational family epics. Although the book was beautifully written, it failed significantly capture my attention and the ending did indeed seem to simply peter out rather than carrying any significance. Oh well. I think it is very difficult to do a good job of a chronologically ordered life story (or in this case the chronologically ordered stories of several lives), because it is very difficult to create sustained conflict in that type of story and sustained conflict is what makes books interesting. Or at least it's one of the things that can make a book interesting. Books can also be interesting because of the author's use of language, because of the characters, because of the narrative structure, because of the ideas and themes the author discusses, etc. However, I find that all of that stuff works better when it has a sustained conflict to serve as the scaffolding for the characters, the language and all the rest. I may enjoy a book for its beautiful language or its clever narrative structure, but the books I love are the ones with the plots that draw me in, and that requires sustained conflict.

I don't know yet what I'll read next. I've read just about everything in the house that is even remotely interesting, so I probably won't have another book to write about until after I can get to the library this weekend.

P.S. If anyone who reads this happens to know how use italics, would you please share that information with me? I'm sick of my method of denoting titles, and would prefer to do it the right way. Thanks.