(no subject)

[white_hart]

Reading Dorothy Dunnett's Pawn in Frankincense, I have two main thoughts (well, three if you count the loud AAAARGHHH which is clearly the only sensible reaction to a plot of such fiendish twistiness in which every turn just seems to make it all worse), viz:

1. I really, really want to go to Istanbul one day. The descriptions are just amazing. (It's a good book to read in winter, lots of sun and colours and enough mention of lovely fruit and delicious sherbets to make my mouth water.)

2. When I first started reading Dunnett, everyone told me I'd want to thump Lymond. I actually don't, mostly. Possibly this means I'm some kind of sociopath at heart. On the other hand, I have spent most of the book so far wanting to hit Jerrott Blyth repeatedly round the head with a clue-by-four.

(Please note that I'm currently 77% of the way through the book and despite the sheer agony of the fiendishly twisty plot have no desire to know how it ends up working itself out until I actually get to the end myself - so while I would very much like to discuss this book, and Lymond in general, I'm afraid I selfishly only want to discuss it as far as I've read so far.)

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

Lymond is one of the many things I failed to read over Christmas. I am pleased to hear another good report of it. I will manage it one day, honest!

[white_hart]

I'm still very much enjoying it, but it's not ideal Christmas-holiday reading as it definitely requires one to be alert enough to note the throwaway comment which turns out, 50 pages on, not to have been throwaway at all...

[perennialanna]

Nothing is ever throwaway in Dunnett.

I will say absolutely nothing else until you have finished, because I don't think I can say anything without talking about the ending.

[white_hart]

Indeed not; I was reminded of that recently as I scrolled back trying to remember who it was who was described as using a particular scent.

I will post again when I finish it!

[nineveh_uk]

I can see that that would require the right surroundings to fully appreciate.

[aunty_marion]

Yes, Jerott is sometimes very much in need of a clout with a clue-by-four. Poor lad. He must have had a very *normal* upbringing...

[white_hart]

Not that Lymond actually helps matters by refusing to explain anything and letting Jerrott find everything out secondhand, usually from the least appropriate person possible, but still, you'd think by the third or fourth time he'd have learnt to stop jumping quite so reliably to the wrong conclusions!

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

Istanbul is lovely - but I gather it's been snowing there this week!

[white_hart]

Yes, a friend of mine was delayed flying back to the UK yesterday because of the snow.

I certainly hope to go one day, though it's a long journey for those of us who prefer not to fly and currently beset by replacement buses in Bulgaria.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

http://www.seat61.com/Turkey.htm#.Vol_QKOnzFo ...

[white_hart]

The very page I was looking at!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Great minds, and all that.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

And in Turkey itself, I understand, while they are building the Marmoray tunnel. One day The Man in Seat 61 will come up with a viable option.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

The tunnel is there and a handful of new stations (we have been through it on the commuter rail) it's everything else that isn't ( with no date apparently as far as I can see).