i'm a very very complex person

I finished Pat Barker's -Another World- a few days ago. It was a funny book... Not funny ha-ha, but funny strange. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and all, it was just a little strange. The main reason that I found it funny is because I read the first nine-tenths of the book in an absolute lather, turning pages at an incredible rate, sucked in by the immensely suspenseful story, certain that something earth shattering was going to happen very soon. But as I got closer and closer to the end of the book, it became clear that all the suspense and foreboding were for naught, and the events in the book just quietly took care of themselves. I find that a very interesting resolution, because it's much closer to the way things usually resolve in real life. It seemed like a bit of a let down at the time, however, because Barker had gotten me to the point where I was expecting ghosts or fratricide or god-knows-what... However, ghosts and fratricide are fairly uncommon in real life, so the book is probably a better piece of literature because it left them out.

Even if that does make it a better work of literature, however, it's got nothing on the other books of Barker's that I've read. I would say that both -Union Street- and the books of the -Regeneration- trilogy are far better than -Another World-. Oh well.

And now I'm reading more Ursula K. LeGuin. Man. I don't think I've read this many of her books in such a short span of time since I was fifteen or something.... I'm currently about a quarter of the way through -Malafrena-, which is interesting because it's really not sci-fi or fantasy at all. It's about a guy who wants to foment rebellion in an imaginary Eastern European country in the 1820s. Interesting so far. It's also interesting to read after reading -Napolean Symphony-, since it provides another perspective on what Europe looked like in the wake of Napolean's empire.