THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (John Fowles) - September 15/11

For a while there, this was one of the worst books I'd ever read, as John Fowles proves himself to be perhaps the most pompous author in existence. Fowles offers up long-winded and utterly dull paragraphs devoted to absolute nonsense, with his continual penchant for stepping outside of the narrative exacerbating the book's nigh unreadable feel. For about the first 250 pages, it's not difficult to envision the actual story being condensed into about 10 pages. The novel admittedly does improve towards the end, but Fowles even botches this stretch with his laughably florid writing style. Seriously, Fowles, brevity is your friend. God, what a mess and a waste of time. * out of ****