No. You are not reading one of the heartbroken and twisted love letters set in accordance to the overrated Valentines, but I am talking about a book, about some of her books I've grown to love.
I was introduced to Susan Howatch's literary work on one afternoon of 2003 while I was busily scavenging in a thrift shop book store. As they quote, "you'll never know what you're going to get." I never did, as I picked this thick, interestingly old hardcover book that has a title, "The Rich are Different." How obviously raw, and it seems the poetry's been drained out of it, which is the exact reason I bought it.
*www.http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n13/n65775.jpg
I remembered skimming through it after work and, then I knew I was caught by the literature. It was obsession by then. I must admit reading one part to another, might have triggered schizophrenia and natural weight loss.
Now, I'm reading another thick novel called The Wheel of Fortune. Again, do not judge the book by it's sappy title. It talks about how Fortune, adapting the Philosophy of Boethius, is represented on the life of the English Godwin Family that takes place in the early 1920's-1940's.
The author of these unique and challenging works of art is Susan Howatch, an English writer who is known to write Family-Saga novels that have an average number of pages of 1,000. Let's put at it this way, if you like soap operas, the classic ones, not the trashy ones wherein twists and turns are forced, now this is the book for you. But for those who don't have the heart for soap operas, I wouldn't be surprised if you'll like it as well, as I did. This is the heart of long Family sagas, people, before TV was invented and before long Epic Family Soap operas were invented. If you're thinking a novel version of Days of our Lives, then you're mocking the book. It has more class, character and focus than that of the scripted versions that tend to trick and entice the minds. She writes in large parts and every part is seen through the eyes of the the major characters. It's written in 1st person narrative. The conflicts are complex, which involves analysis (this is the part where you put yourselves in one character's shoes to another, therefore endangering yourself to a multiple-personality syndrome). The setting is raw and evolving to the times. The time line and story is so vast, yet the focus is there. And the writing, the conversations, it's as if you hear them speaking through the character's mouths. The words are so fluid, intelligent and sharp. This means that the conversations are amusingly sarcastic to the bone.There is no sappiness in every sentence, only truth just like what a normal person goes through.
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Here is an excerpt on the book WHEEL OF FORTUNE:
Ginevra's Part: After having a quickie copulation with her stiff and perfect husband Rober, which last about precisely 16 seconds...
Trailing to the bathroom, I prepared for more tedium, but was awoken from my stupor of distaste by finding that the little flesh-colored thread had become detached from sponge while the sponge itslef had been shoved beyond th reach of my longest finger
I sighed, prayed for contortionist skills and returned to the fray but in the end I gave it up. I spent some time debating whether I should use the douche again, just as I alwyas did, but in the end I was too nervous. Supposing I washed the sponge so far up that I had to have an operation to remove it? I shuddered. I was unsure what went on in the nether reaches of the feminine anatomy, but I picutured some unspeakable nastiness taking place among the ovaries. Wholly repelled I abandoned all thought of douching and toiled exhausted back to bed.
men have no idea what women have to go through sometimes, no idea at all.
Robert's Part: His view on Fortune by Boethius "The Consolation of Philosophy"
"I know the many disguises of that monster, Fortune, and the extent to which she seduces with friendship the very people she is striving to cheat, until she overwhelms them with the unbearable grief at the suddenness of her desertion..."
Those are just few lines I've randomly picked up. Every page seems to have a representation of the glorious works of art. It's not fantasy, but it offers the reader different perspectives of life, a lesson. But I tell you that it is very challenging to read, just like Anna Karenina, happy exhaustion would be felt by following the developments of the story. It's a thick treasure you'd have to finish from cover to cover.
Ashamed as I am, I'm still on page 839 to be exact and I've been reading this since January 1st, and I'm getting there. The characters are already 40 years old, some are dead and some are born. I can't wait to finish this! It's an excitement I have in another world! It would be a victory and an admiration for the Goodwin Family, another one of Howatch's greats!!
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