War and Peace Check-In: October

YOU GUYS! Only two months and we're finished! Hard to believe!

I quite enjoyed this month's reading for the most part, but like Iris pointed out, I feel like my comments are getting repetitive! I mean the most jarring part of this book is Tolstoy's little lectures to the readers, I think. It's not that I disagree with him, it's just that it feels odd.

Anyway!

Prince Andrei died. :( This was very convenient for Mayra and Rostov, I guess, but still kind of sad. At least he got to see Natasha again? I found the whole description leading up to his death very interesting, like where he was struggling to connect the importance of things to the people still living.

I'm so happy Marya likes Rostov, like the part about all the things she had to do not being so bad because she was in love was nice. Rostov remains a bit of a loser (I like though!) in that he clearly wanted to move forward with Marya but felt bound to Sonya. I guess it's nice he wanted to be honorable but that really wouldn't be fair to anyone from a relational perspective.

I really liked so much the stuff about Sonya feeling like she'd accomplished all she had through being self sacrificing, so much that everyone expected it, but she didn't want to give up Rostov and resented Natasha who everyone else sacrificed for. That one paragraph gave Sonya and her situation a kind of depth and complexity that intrigued me. AND OF COURSE she ended up sacrificing herself again via her own delusions! Aw, poor Sonya.

And as usual, Tolstoy has a nice touch with depicting war...Pierre in captivity watching the executions and navigating his life there...feeling like he understood the meaning of life only to not realize that when you're forced to be content with less, you will be content with less. I really liked the point there!

Anyway, I read this all in one chunk and quite enjoyed it!

How are you guys getting along with it? Do you have any last wishes for the book before it ends?