I finished Rebecca...finally!

So, in looking at the blog, I'm realizing that we started this book in May...apparently, I've been working on this book for a while. In my defense, I am still finishing my thesis with little free time. In addition, Ryan and I picked this to read out loud together. It keeps us off the streets, and perhaps more importantly, it keeps us off the television.

In reading out loud, I realized that Du Maurier is somewhat fastidious in her descriptions. She is wonderfully visual, if you enjoy seeing your book as it unfolds. I couldn't help feeling frustrated that there was so much description and seemingly so little dialogue. Perhaps it is simply a manifestation of the constraints of using first-person recollection. In that way, it gave an accurate sense of recollection, but the intense description of each scene kind of undermined that sense of recollection. I don't think this is necessarily true, but it seems that if you can't remember a whole lot of dialogue, you won't remember that a butterfly flew by.

I was constantly frustrated by her as a character, whatever her name is...(I do think that the intense focus on Rebecca's name and the lack of our character's name made a perfect contrast.) Our girl seemed very young and very silly in every respect, even after she claims she "grew up" in the face of struggle. I was particularly disturbed by her complete lack of morality. It wasn't that she was immoral, rather she was terribly amoral and that was in every sense disturbing. As lukewarm as she was, it made me want to spew her out of my mouth for a lack of better phrasing.

I did enjoy the book overall, I liked a lot of the plot points, though predictable and found myself in a hurry to finish it...which was particularly painful, as I had to wait until we could read together.

Anyone else finished and want to discuss the interesting themes in the book?