Just Me and The Puppet Master Narrator

 I'm not sure where I stand in regards to my feelings about this book, Generosity. On one hand I find myself itching to underline so many quotes and passages that resonate with me, that I find funny, or that I find thought provoking, but on the other I feel so distant from the characters, so isolated from the book that I just want to take a sledgehammer and break through the narration to get to the characters. The plot I like, the narration not so much. In our section on Thursday Anne stated that this was indeed a novel of ideas, not of characters. I agree with this- and it really pisses me off because I really like what I do see of the characters and the plot and the relationships that are forming. In my head I keep thinking that this book deserves more- these things deserve to be fleshed out like they would in most other novels. I understand that this book and this author is trying to prove something, even if I'm not 100% sure what it is yet. I can see how the narration style and unfleshed characters bordering on stereotypes can point back to the idea of the library of babel, and how it is impossible to tell a new story. I acknowledge all that but it doesn't mean that I have to like it. There comes a point where I just want to escape into the book, but it makes it so difficult to do so. In class last Tuesday we seemed divided in who likes to escape into a novel and who likes to stay aware and constantly thinking about a book's intentions, but I am definitely a fan of escaping into literature. I just feel that as soon as I am comfortable enough, I am pushed out, my strings possessed by the puppet master narrator.