The Game

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Not "Possession..."
Review: Like [others], I, too was disappointed somewhat with The Game. In Byatt's other work, her characters seem more fully developed and their problems seem more real. In this work, Julia and Cassandra are superficial actors of a cerebral plot, and because of this I found it difficult to care about what happened to either of them. I thought Byatt's plot had the potential to be quite intriguing; however, it was difficult to understand at times the interplay between what was actually happening in the lives of Julia and Cassandra and how they made those occurrences "real" for one another. I rate this book a 3 because it fades considerably when compared to Byatt's other work, most notably Possession. This is not to say that it is poorly written -- Byatt has a familiar style that carries the reader along quite nicely. The flaws here are a plot that fails to truly engage the reader and characters who do not demand the reader's sympathy.

Rating:
Summary: A foreshadowing of Byatt's work to come
Review: This earlier novel deals with many of Byatt's favorite themes: the relationships between sisters, the creative process, literary criticism, the academic world, the struggle of married women to retain their intellectual and personal identity within a circumscribing institution. The game of the title is an Arthurian fantasy devised in childhood by two intense, competitive, and willful sisters, now estranged. To the sisters, the game retains even in adulthood a vibrance and power to which real life cannot compare. To the reader, however, the game is frustratingly vague. In later works, Byatt would have articulated the game as an alternative and interwoven narrative, but here Byatt refuses readers access to the tantalizing imaginative world of her characters. Thus, the characters remain slightly repellent ciphers and the novel seems merely a earlier draft for the richer novels Byatt had not yet written. This books seems to be more closely autobiographical than some later works on the same themes, and perhaps for this reason she feels compelled to keep the reader at arm's length. An unsatisfying exercise interesting only in the context of Byatt's later writings.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally draining
Review: This is the first book of A. S. Byatt that I have read. I have only read half-way through, and was so frustrated that I wanted to read some other people's thoughts on this book. The book could be very interesting if it were not for SO MANY philisopical, and religious arguments the characters have between eachother and themselves, in much too much detail. Additionally, it is a very bleak book thus far, and I am not interested enough to continue. I have purchased POSSESION, and honestly do not look forward to reading it, if this book is any indication of what I have to look forward to.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally draining
Review: This is the first book of A. S. Byatt that I have read. I have only read half-way through, and was so frustrated that I wanted to read some other people's thoughts on this book. The book could be very interesting if it were not for SO MANY philisopical, and religious arguments the characters have between eachother and themselves, in much too much detail. Additionally, it is a very bleak book thus far, and I am not interested enough to continue. I have purchased POSSESION, and honestly do not look forward to reading it, if this book is any indication of what I have to look forward to.