i know im going to get berated by experts (most of them british) come book club night, but despite re-reading most of persuasion, i still don’t see it as being a great book. the only thing that makes it even slightly interesting is when you compare it to other jane austen books, (ie: jane austen tends not to have a high regard for good looking men) or take into consideration the author’s circumstances at the tme. (ie: she was ill at the time she wrote this, what influence did this have on her sick characters.)

here are three (sound) reasons for not liking the book.

1. not enough dialogue. it’s hard to warm to any of the characters, when we don’t know them very well. because of the lack of dialogue, characters seemed remote. since anne said very little and most was said for her, i never got to know her. and NO, i didn’t think austen did a good enough job portraying emotions in the dialogue she provided. ditto for anne’s boyfriend, he didn’t speak a lot either, so it would have been better to give him the few lines, rather than converse for him.

2. takes a long long time to get going. yes i know you need to set the stage, but…nah.

3. we never really learn why anne listened to her benefactor and broke off her engagement in the first place. what was so redeeming and wonderful about the woman? why didn’t she open her home to anne if she cared so much about her? (and ruined her chances for marriage).

someone’s going to have to persuade me pretty hard to make me change my mind on this book.

moving on.

the triplets are at the age where they are fascinated with their baby pictures (or any pictures of them) and like sebastian, love hearing stories of "little baby..(insert name here)". egomania starts early. how am i supposed to share with them all sorts of stories about my wonderful childhood if all they want to hear about is them?

they are happy to sit on my lap and look at their baby pictures for hours on end. what astounds me is that they can tell who was who, at such an early age and stage.  was jasper’s trademark "bewildered" look so noticeable even then? and although carys doesn’t suck up her bottom lip any more, they must remember that she once did, because they can identify her in the lineup. and sela’s nosy, wide eyes? even though they’re blue in the baby pictures, her siblings still call out, "that’s sela!" i find it quite uncanny.

carys can look at pictures of herself in the nicu, covered with tubes and tape, and then she will point to the white, now just slightly raised bumps on her hands, and say, "i got these when i was in the hospital." and i will agree with her. she doesn’t know that they are slight scars from the mainline iv’s, she just knows they aren’t playground scars like so many of her friends have.

sela is happy to pull sanitary napkins out from under the cupboard and announce that when she was a baby she wore nappies smaller than this.

jasper is pleased when i swaddle baby batman in his Special Blanket because, "when i was a little baby the nurses used to tie me up".

i don’t think they have twigged that their first months were extraordinary. i think they figure that since i have so many pictures of preemies in the house, and we pray for a lot of websites where preemies are featured (go baby "winif"!) that all babies start off in nicu’s with blood transfusion bags at their side. i wonder when they will figure out that not all do, and what it will mean to them.