And I hate everyone but Marek. Marek is the only character of this book that I don’t hate. And I don’t not hate him because he is a character that I like, or would normally like. Usually I would not like his character, but the fact that every single other sad sack of a character in this story hates him makes me like him out of spite to them. They blame him, and only him, for their own sad lives and bad tempers. The fact that every single character in this book (except Marek) has the same essential disposition, honestly made it boring. There were no characters that inspired me to read further, had me invested, made me think in new ways, had me curious about them. They were all vain, selfish, immature, with an astounding number of large beams in their eyes. All of them were the same person except Marek.
I have read all of Mossfegh’s other books (except for Eileen) and I liked them. They were fun and especially good when I have angst that I need a direction for. I was sort of expecting this book to feel similarly, with maybe a few more extra fucky elements. But imagine you erase everything good about a book and just leave the fucky elements..that’s this book.
I just don’t know why I’m supposed to care about any of these characters. Being inside of their one singular mind was so unpleasant that I thought about DNFing multiple times.
Villiam…. Probably the most annoying character I have ever read about. I started to notice that whenever something might go wrong at the manor and upset the status quo, or cause Villiam to be suspicious about something, he just didn’t care. I actually began to think that he has an intellectual disability that we are not privy to (since we don’t have access to his thoughts, or we do but they are so shallow that we essentially don’t) and for this reason he does not understand the world around him and is unable to engage with it in a meaningful or logical way. I can’t think of any other explanation for this character.
The religion is Christianity, but all the villagers are illiterate, the priest hardly ever orchestrates Mass, and when he does it's made up on the fly just to keep the villagers in line and fearful. As shown towards the end of the book, the priest himself has practically no understanding of the Nativity and doesn't realize pagan stories like the Wild Hunt aren't biblical. The servants seem to have their own vegetarian sect that isn't explored too much but in my opinion is something reminiscent of Bogomilism.
haha thanks for this reply. I guess I should have read more if I wanted to learn more about the book, but I couldn't do it. Your comment was more entertaining than the whole book!!