Done, finished it

I don't tend to be swayed by reviews, I try to refrain from Amazon's reviewers until I have finished a book completely. It avoids the spoilers. I really did enjoy this book. It was a bit of a beast at 833 pages long but it really didn't feel like it was that long. After I read it I realised that there really wasn't much of a storyline but Faber did such a fabulous job of entertaining me with his detailed descriptions - but they never once felt 'overdone', as sometimes Dickens makes it seem, and contrasting the lives of the rich and poor in Victorian London. I really do feel like I have experienced the story. For me the style with which he employed really did pull me in from the first line and he kept me in the palm of his hand throughout. I know (from Amazon reviewers) that some found it tediously boring, but for me I found it fascinating - I love the Victorian era. The ending was also a moot point for some but again for me I just knew that he wasn't going to conform; he left it very open. This didn't bother me at all - I know what happened to the characters, it's just that it is my version of the story and it becomes a talking point. I think that is the brilliance of this story is that you make it up for yourself. Use your imagination, surely that is what reading is all about.

I am a little bit undecided where my literary interest is going to fall next but what I do know is that I haven't finished with the Victorians - oh no! not by a long way!