Beth and I traveled back to Ireland today with RJ in tow. My brain isn't working quite yet so I doubt that I'll say anything profound about this book that I finished a couple of weeks ago. Joseph Conrad's novella "The Heart of Darkness" was a hard book for me to get through.
I found the frame narrative style quite difficult to read. The point of view is of somebody being told a story to, but the entire novella is essentially in quotes, dictated by the main character, Marlow. Still the story is good. Good enough for Francis Ford Coppola to make it into a film (though the time and location were changed). You might have heard of the movie: Apocalypse Now.
The story deals with a character, Kurtz, who develops a god-complex ruling over local tribesmen in the heart of the dark continent, Congo. In the beginning of the story, Kurtz is held in high esteem by Marlow, but as Marlow uncovers the mysteries surrounding Kurtz, he discovers Kurtz's heart of darkness and the evil that he commits to obtain ivory.
Good story, hard narrative style. I don't know if I need to recommend this book. I'll be checking out Apocalypse Now to see how the story was adapted and perhaps I will recommend the movie to you instead.
As far as my 10,000 pages goal is concerned, I am about 600 pages behind at halfway through the year. So I'm on target to hit about 9,000 pages unless I pick up the pace. The next book I'll be reading is the 1000 page monster sequel to A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, so I expect to catch up quickly.
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