The behemoth is done!

I have finally finished "The Mists of Avalon," all nearly 900 pages of it. Now, there were lots of parts that I really liked, but no doubt what I'm going to say will tick off my closest mommy friend and fantasy readers in general.

First, this book was incredibly hard to get into. I read at least 50 pages before I actually wanted to keep reading. I almost put it down after the first two pages, when the adjective shaken was used at least three times for the same character. Variety, please! If I weren't reading it in a group, I doubt I would have kept going. But I figured surely something had to be there since so many people loved it.

And something was there. The Arthur story is always compelling, and it was interesting to read about old pagan ways for a while. There wasn't much else to learn about Beltane after a bit, but it was still interesting. But around page 600, I was just plain ready to read a different story. I knew pretty much who was going to kill who in the end, and I was tired of reading the fantasy style. I've never been big on fantasy, and as I kept going, the characters just blended. Gwenhwyfar could have been Morgain or Igraine or Morgause half the time. Yes, they said very different things, but every single character flew into rages at the drop of a hat, went from religious ecstasy to complete doubt in paragraphs, etc. I'm sorry, but not every person is that dramatically emotional. The religious Druids and priestesses were always self-righteous, but you only rarely saw them being actually religious, other than Beltane. And the characters seemd to have very poor hearing and/or memory, because characters would say things in a large crowd, and a few chapters later, it was brand new again -- like Lancelet not knowing Nimue was in Avalon. Duh, Morgaine said that. I just got very irritated with inconsistencies.

And what the heck was up with Raven and Morgaine? Where did that come from? They'd earlier been saying how gay men were denying the Goddess and life tides and so forth, but then lesbianism is fine? A higher expression of the Goddess, no less? That was probably the most obnoxious contradiction.

The character of Gwenhwyfar (heck if I can spell that) was maddening, and I know she was supposed to be, but I pains me when Christianity is so skewed. She was always saying God was punishing her, which reminded me of a girl I knew in high school. I found out a couple years ago that she had become Wiccan, largely because of the incredible guilt trip she had be given by her mother, a devout Eastern Orthodox. Her mother was dying of cancer and actually told her perhaps 15-year-old daughter that it was her fault, God hated her, she wasn't praying hard enough, etc. So now, understandably, this woman doesn't trust Christians in the slightest. She was quoted in an article on Wicca, and the scorn in her words was incredible. It just amazes me when a religion that is about a God of LOVE can be so thwarted. And I'm sure that woman has read this book and had her stereotypes reinforced tenfold.

Of course, I don't doubt this book was a fairly accurate representation of fourth century Christianity. And I say all of this as a liberal protestant, and I'm sure there are many still today that would disagree with me. But it was still irritating.

That said, overall it was a pretty good book. Overdone in spots, long winded, but a good story (how could it not be) and interesting historical perspective. There were days in the middle when I didn't want to put it down. But I was slogging at the end and would recommend Mary Stewart's take on the legend, "The Crystal Cave" and sequals, instead.

Still speaking to me, Amber? Don't tell Janet! :)