I'm sort of torn as to how i feel about this book so far. Typically, Adams' writing style would have about driven me up the wall. I remember that everyone in the class had very strong feelings about Melville's use and abuse of comas... and it seems that Adams has also taken a vendetta against succinct writing. But the thing is... i really find myself enjoy his writing style. While Melville's writing would become congested with many (seemingly disconnected) thoughts separated by a parade of commas and run-ons, Adams' writing seems far more easy going. It seems to be a stylistic choice that forces the reader to read slowly and really concentrate on what he's saying. I'm a major speed reader and it took me 2o minutes to read ~15 pages (which is kind of slow for me).
My other semi-issue with Adams' writing style is his lack of dialogue. He relies completely on his narration to keep the story going... which is fine except without dialogue it doesn't seem to be a story, rather a collection of very brief biographies in one (or at least within the first chapter or two this is the case). This is not necessarily a bad thing it's just not typical of many writing styles that I've seen.
It's so interesting that Adams' can reflect, as an adult, the way he felt as a child. He doesn't seem to even try to clean up his childhood for his reader. He came out several times and said "hey, i was kind of a jerk..." (he did this far more poetically). I really enjoy his very wide eyed perspective of all the historical events and historical people that surround his life. He is so completely immersed in this political lifestyle that he doesn't understand the big picture of who these people are. They are just Grandpa President and Grandma Madame President. It actually kind of reminds me of Forrest Gump in that he experiences (or his family experiences) all of these really important events in history, but doesn't fully grasp their significance the way that we as an outside source do.
so that was my initial impression of the book....
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I agree with you about the speed reading trouble! I am having the hardest time slowing down to actually listen to what he's saying. I don't really like the disconnected nature of the book because it is really hard to get attached to. I can't get hooked into a story, so I'm just reading what seems like monotony. This is probably exaggerated by the fact that I don't know or particularly like history, so the names are arbitrary and confusing to me. But when he gets down to talking about his education, I like those parts. We'll see how it goes the rest of the reading!
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