Under the Wide and Starry Sky

I was drawn to the story of Robert Louis Stevenson; my school is named after him and I felt like I knew very little about him.* I know lots about him now. The book mostly deals with his relationship with his wife, Fanny, which is to me the least interesting part of Stevenson, but that may just be me. I like his cheerfulness and I liked learning about how he came to write his books. A perfect snow day read.

After the success of Loving Frank, I was looking forward to Under the Wide and Starry Sky but I quickly lost interest. It was much too long and repetitive - RLS gets sick, Fanny worries, Fanny complains that she is underappreciated, RLS gets sick again, repeat ad nauseum. Neither character was sympathetic or compelling enough to sustain my interest over 450+ pages, and I skimmed the entire second half of the book.

I just couldn't get into this book. I didn't care about the characters and I felt the writing was unimaginative and flat. There was no excitement, no beauty, it was just run-of-the-mill - he did this, and then that, and she laughed and then they walked along the river. Blah!

Maybe the size of the novel daunted me too. If it was 300 pages I may have soldiered on, but 500 pages of something I didn't find in the least bit entertaining was unbearable. Reading should not be a chore!

I only read 25% of the novel though, so it may get better later on (and to be fair, I was reading Gone Girl at the same time, and not much can compete with that in terms of intrigue).