by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I only read 55% of this book on my Kindle and did not enjoy it very much. The first part (before the author went into the story) was decent but after that it just fell on the wayside. Several reasons why.
First I did not like the story. It is about a woman who had a child out of wedlock and has to bear the shame of having a bastard child. My gripe is not with this concept actually. It could have been a very emotional and touching journey. However, I did not feel an inkling of feeling for the main character Hester Prynne. Furthermore, through the author's prose, it seems the place of woman at the time was in the kitchen. This is shown in the early sections where he says the utility of a woman is cooking and cleaning (or something to that effect, I cannot remember the exact words). Perhaps this was an ironic statement, though i feel not. Perhaps this story does not carry much weight in the current society, life has advanced so much from 1850 after all. That said, I still feel there are books out there that describe their respective period with much more emotion and impact, Like To Kill A Mockingbird. Or perhaps 1850's English is so hard to read that I just cannot fully appreciate the beauty in the words. I felt the prose lacked elegance and were very poorly constructed at times.
It is surprising I would have such a negative of such a popular and classical piece of literature. I guess it really is subjective people's taste in book. I really cannot say I enjoy this book no matter how much I tried to force myself to.
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