The Great Divorce

This is another of C.S. Lewis's short books about Christianity. I'd say it is interesting if you are a Christian or just want to understand it a little better. Otherwise, though it is in the form of a narrative story, it won't be very interesting.

Regardless, I enjoyed it.

War and Peace

This is a Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy. The version I read was translated by Constance Garnett. Contrary to all my expectations, this was a very enjoyable read.

For such a long novel, it has very few faults. First is that it is LONG, so it is going to take quite a while to read. Second, it has a ton of characters, each with a first name, last name, nickname, title, etc, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all and their relations to each other. Third, Tolstoy occasionally lapses into his (I think insane) philosophy about history. This is most evident in part two of the epilogue (the last 40 pages of the book) where there is no more plot development, only a rant on Tolstoy's philosophy ranging from how bad writers of history are to claiming that man doesn't exist.

The greatness of War and Peace lies in the fact that it is not just one story, but many story lines woven together to illustrate almost the entirety of the human condition. The novel's enjoyability lies in how the reader can understand and relate to all the characters.

If it weren't such a long novel, I would be reading it again. Instead I think I will put that off for a while.