Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pudd'nhead Wilson

Zack did a wonderful job below of describing the fashion in which this story was relayed to the reader. I have not read a lot of Mark Twain but even from this short work I can tell he is a master storyteller. I have to agree that while I enjoyed this book, I also did not struggle to putting it down. At times, especially early to mid-way through the book it was hard to tell where it was going and I felt like I couldn't lend much more interest to it if I did not see some form of payoff coming. I was impressed, though, with how everything tied together in the end and reaffirmed that my time was well spent. It was a good bounce back from the last book we read!

Appearance 4/5 - I was drawn to this book because of the cover and the title. The combination of name plus men on display aroused my curiosity enough to make a purchase. At least the title had something to do with the book.. Can't say the same for the picture but that man in the center looks hilarious.

Readability 3/5 - At the beginning of each chapter there would be some quotes from one of the characters and I really enjoyed that. And there were aspects of the story that I'm glad I invested in and enjoyed. There was another great portion that never really had a direct impact to the plot and, eh, made me feel like it was whatever. Also, the slave dialect slowed my progress.

My Points 7/10 - It just wasn't a personal favorite. I wasn't able to really attach to any specific character because for the most part it was kept at a pretty superficial level. The things I found interesting, like the social system of the time or Pudd'nhead's interest in finger prints were not even highlighted enough for you to invest in. There just weren't a lot of takeaways. I don't regret reading it, I wouldn't discourage others from reading it; I also would probably never reread it.

Total: 14/20

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