The post that got away....

This is my initial second blog.  I realize that it’s late, but I was kind of at a loss for what to write about this book at the time.  Honestly, I still feel a little blocked as far as mulling over this text and whatnot. 

            Okay, so…honesty time.  I finished the entire book before the reading was ever even assigned.  No, I’m not a dorky overachiever.  I was bored at the beginning of the semester and started reading it thinking it would be a boring book and I’d need to get a head start just to keep on task when the reading assignments were flying my way.  And I ended up finishing it.  So, I’m at that awkward point where I know most of the class hasn’t finished it, so I can’t write spoilers.  Yet, the book as a whole changes any way of analyzing just pieces.  It’s like having to just analyze Mona Lisa’s smile by itself, without taking the eyes and the rest of the painting into consideration.

            And I babble on.  So what I’m going to do now, to make up for this overdue entry, is attempt to piece together an opinion without telling the end of the story.  At the beginning of the book, I feel like I was right with the average reader.  I was scorning Clarissa for all her choices and hoping beyond hope that she would see the error of her ways and return to the arms of Pankaj.  Or something to that effect.  But, as the book goes on, I find that I really don’t want her to go back.  Being in a dead relationship like that for no real reason is pretty bad.  I feel like neither one of them are in love anymore, and they’re only together because, well, why not?  So, as things progress, I’m rooting for Clarissa to find her father, figure herself out, and start a new life somewhere in Lapland. 

            I think I have decided, however, that Clarissa’s mother is kind of a cold, icy character, and it’s pretty befitting of her to end up in Lapland working for an Ice Hotel.  She’s one of those women who tend to draw a crowd of followers who love her, yet fear her judgment.  In a “Mean Girls” sort of style, really.  I hate people like that.  The idea of wanting so bad to make someone love you, or even just look your way for a second is a very depressing concept.  Love from a mother is, in all of its idealism, supposed to be unconditional.  Poor Clarissa gets left in a shopping mall because she took too long.

            Overall, this book has some pretty intense character development routes.  I like it, and I can’t wait for the class to finish the thing so I don’t have to watch what I say in class anymore.