Drag

This part of the book drags for me. I have trouble keeping all the "girls" straight. I'm not thinking Jim is very, uh, deep. He doesn't contribute much, he just thinks a lot. I'll have to think more about Shyla's comment. So Jim is the narrator so to speak? A first hand observer. In Chapter XII, Antonia warns Jim about Lena. And he says "...she was still my Antonia!" So this story is about the romantic notion Jim has of Antonia. It isn't about her loving, it's about him loving what he thinks she is. One of the most memorable lines in the book so far, the last paragraph of Book III, Chapter I, "I begrudged the room that Jack and Otto and the Russian Peter took up in my memory, which I wanted to crowd with other things." I begrudged the room they took up in my memory. Beautiful. Another favorite, fourth paragraph, chapter III, "...was delicate torment". Reminds me of Dickinson's "I like a look of agony because I know it's true." However, the book is no less engaging and now I can finish in peace.