Michael Baker Baker itibaren Stačiūnai 39300, Litvanya itibaren Stačiūnai 39300, Litvanya

My mom read this to me on the train from New York to Florida. I totally figured out who did it one sentence before Poirot revealed the solution.

I started reading this book at least 5 times after I bought it many years ago, but could never succeed in reading more than a few pages. I loved the quirky irony of it all and the crazy characters, but I couldn't see it going anywhere. Many, many pages of the same kind of wit, however clever, seemed excessive. This time at last I persevered and began to understand more of what the book was aiming to do. The humour becomes bittersweet and the message of the futility of war begins to shine through. The gradual killing off of the other characters (or the killing of their humanity) leaves you feeling just how pointless a war can be. Having read this and Slaughterhouse 5 and re-read Im Westen Nichts Neues recently I guess I better read something that is less critical of "just" wars to get some balance.....

I'm having a really difficult time getting into this book. I read the first couple of chapters and lost interest pretty quickly, even though I love the fantasy genre. I haven't been able to bring myself to actually read the whole thing, hence the missing rating. It just didn't hook me fast enough. I will give it another look eventually, but I'm sort of... stuck.