"There's a grief that can't be spoken": Beginning Les Misérables

For months I've been searching for a hard copy of Victor Hugo's grand work Les Misérables to buy and own- granted, I've only gone to secondhand bookstores this far, and I didn't think to ask for Christmas. Either way, I've been trying to find it since last spring. I found out from a friend it was free on Kindle, but it wasn't until I found out I could use my mom's Kindle account on my phone that I actually (finally) got my eyes on a copy of the 959-page-long novel. Already being a huge fan of the musical based on the novel, I was ready to rise up to the occasion for my love of the story and the characters and complete what will be the longest novel I've ever dared to read. 

Thus far, I'm fifty pages into my experience. It is split into five books, and begins with Book I: Fantine. Fifty pages into Book I, I haven't met Fantine yet. I haven't even met main character Jean Valjean yet. So far, the only character I know is the Bishop, who by knowing the musical I know sets Jean Valjean onto his path to salvation. And though I usually get discouraged by things like this (fifty pages so far on a character who has little to do with the story comparatively), I find myself enthusiastically reading rather than skimming by long-looking paragraphs or needing to go back and re-read sections because my mind wanders. I'm excited to finally reach Jean Valjean's and Fantine's story and truly begin the novel, but I'm not learning about the Bishop grudgingly, either. Maybe it's because I'm reading it on my own accord, or maybe it's because I already have a love and knowing of the story and characters, but I'm excited to read "the brick", as it is called, and know what I've been missing out on. 

I still hope to be able to find an unabridged hard copy of the novel somewhere, which is closer to 1,500 pages long than 959, but until then I'll do with having the lighter and more portable phone version. 

A Look Back on "The Fault In Our Stars"

It was surprising to me how important Hazel's favorite book within the novel, An Imperial Affliction, became to the plot of the story. Hazel states that she wants to lessen the impact of her death, so she only really associates with her parents, and she says that books are her best friends. She names that one book in particular as her favorite. The girl in Hazel's book, Anna, has cancer and is assumed to have died at the end of the novel. Hazel is really stricken by the ending- it ends mid-sentence, a very real ending, as Hazel notes. Either Anna died, or got too sick to go on writing.  She wishes to God that she could ask the author what became of Anna's family members, but she has no idea how to contact him. While I liked the star-crossed lovers story line enough, this was the most heartbreaking part of the storyline to me (apart from learning about Hazel's sickness itself)- Hazel's wish to know what will become of her own family after her death. Hazel's question is always, "What happens to Anna's mother after she dies?" When she meets Peter van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction, and he will not answer her questions, Hazel becomes desperate. She shouts and cries at Peter, frantic to know what happens to Anna's mom after her death. It was so heartbreaking because clearly Hazel is really asking van Houten what happens to her mother after she dies. Hazel often mentions how much her mother worries for her, and she spends all of her time simply caring for Hazel. Hazel feels the desperate need to know what will become of her mother after she dies and leaves her behind. She wants assurance that her mother will be okay without her. To me, this was the most tragic and compelling part of the story, and I wish it had been touched upon more.