Andrea beat me to the review for this book, our bookclub pick for june. I finished it a week ago while on vacation, and also managed to see the film version which my parents had received from netflix, and brought along in case we had some free time. I agree with most of Andrea's assessment. None of the characters received any of my sympathy, nor did I feel a connection to them (something that's usually necessary for me to enjoy a book). Kitty came close in her time at an orphanage in the cholera epidemic. After her initial disgust towards the "yellow-skinned" children, she appeared to warm to them which gave me hope that her character would grow, learn, mature, etc, but that wasn't the case. Walter was equally flawed. He entered into a marriage with a woman he was desperately in love with, but whom he knew didn't love him. He knew she was trivial, superficial, and bored by him- things that should make him predict her affair- and yet he responded to it by bringing her to a place where he thought she'd die. Normally these circumstances would require me to dislike a book, but not in this case. The flaws of the characters, and my universal dislike of them all allowed me to enjoy the story that was being told, rather than focusing solely on the individuals.Netflix rating? 3.5/5 stars.
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