Mij Woodward's Reviews > The Round House
The Round House
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Maybe it's my age (68). Maybe it's a peculiar idiosyncrasy that I am unable to tolerate ANY passages in a novel that seem to be aimed at teaching me something.
I do like to be taught. But in a novel, any teachings have to be cleverly disguised, and just sort of snuck into the plot.
Maybe all that I learned about the Chippewa in North Dakota, and the injustices they and other Native groups face from our country's stupid fractured legal system, and life on the reservation--maybe that learning deserves 4 or 5 stars.
However, I can only give this 3 stars, because of the passages in this novel that felt like I was being taught something.
I only wanted to stay with the storyline, the main plot, and the main characters.
About half way through, I began to sort of skim through the teaching passages, and other passages that did not seem germane to the storyline.
Also, as the mother of four boys, (POSSIBLE SPOILER HERE)--I could not picture my 13-year-old boys acting in the ways that a couple of them did in this novel. Did not seem plausible. But then, our family did not have to face what the family in The Round House had to face, and also, we did not live on a reservation.
On the plus side--I very much enjoyed the story, and will not be forgetting it and some of the characters any time soon.
I do like to be taught. But in a novel, any teachings have to be cleverly disguised, and just sort of snuck into the plot.
Maybe all that I learned about the Chippewa in North Dakota, and the injustices they and other Native groups face from our country's stupid fractured legal system, and life on the reservation--maybe that learning deserves 4 or 5 stars.
However, I can only give this 3 stars, because of the passages in this novel that felt like I was being taught something.
I only wanted to stay with the storyline, the main plot, and the main characters.
About half way through, I began to sort of skim through the teaching passages, and other passages that did not seem germane to the storyline.
Also, as the mother of four boys, (POSSIBLE SPOILER HERE)--I could not picture my 13-year-old boys acting in the ways that a couple of them did in this novel. Did not seem plausible. But then, our family did not have to face what the family in The Round House had to face, and also, we did not live on a reservation.
On the plus side--I very much enjoyed the story, and will not be forgetting it and some of the characters any time soon.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
October 15, 2012
– Shelved
October 15, 2012
– Shelved as:
national-book-2012
October 15, 2012
–
Finished Reading
December 15, 2012
– Shelved as:
hist-fiction
Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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Ann
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Jan 02, 2013 12:58PM
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Ann--it's all chemistry. Or, the old pot-of-gold thing--what is someone's gold is another's trash. Or, in this case, not trash at all, but 3 stars for me, 5 stars for you. To me, 3 stars means it is a good book, so you and I agree about that!
Rebecca--very succinctly put!
Well, I have a tendency to say things in sort of a roundabout or at least a more longwinded way, such as how I tried to explain that I do not like teaching-parts in a fictional work, so the phrases "poorly delivered" and "distracting" felt more succinct to me. And I betcha' someone could re-phrase what I just tried to say here much more succinctly!
I'm so curious. Consider I'm at the half-way point of the book. I find that it is dragging, after a nice start. Perhaps the "teaching" is to come... :)
My favorite form of fiction is historical fiction. I love learning about other cultures, other places, other times. Some novels do this without it being that obvious--details just appear as part of the scene. Other novels seem bent on teaching the reader something, and so the learning parts feel a little out of place or "teachy" (is that a word?) or "preachy." My antenna goes up when I sense that I am being "told" something, rather than being shown something.
When you finish the novel, get back with me, and I can then be more specific as to the parts in Round House that felt a little teachy to me.
I'm about 85% finished. I'll check in again when I finish.
I get what you mean about the teachy/preachy thing. I love to learn from books, but novels are for enjoying, and if I learn along the way, that's added bonus. Historical fiction have always been my favorite for that reason.
A year after reading this, I will say that there are scenes from this book that are still vivid in my memory, which is not all that common. I don't remember the boy behavior so much.. but I have four boys, too (and one girl), and I have found myself feeling similarly - disagreeing with how teenage boys are depicted.
If memory serves me well at all, I think I had read Montana 1948 and Ordinary Grace close to the same time as this one, and they were all narrated by coming-of-age boys, and I didn't agree with the way their behavior was stereotyped.
It looks like you read this one quite a while ago.. I just stumbled upon your review!