Monday, June 11, 2007

The Westing Game -- Ellen Raskin, 1979 (read 5-9 June 2007)

This is one of the first books Adam's recommended to me that I've actually read.

I remember coming across this book in elementary school and thinking it looked horribly boring. I was wrong. It's lots of fun! Raskin's writing is engaging and clever; we don't have much time to get to know the many, many characters, but each one stands out as a distinguishable individual.

Clues, red herrings, and surprises come at you fast. I kept thinking I was clever for figuring something out, only to get knocked down a peg for totally misinterpreting something else -- just the way the characters do. Thanks to my omniscient readerly perspective, I got the main point of the mystery much faster than the characters did, but I missed a crucial piece that was obvious to them. (It was available to me, if I had read a little more carefully.)

I didn't find the ending quite satisfying -- there were still too many loose ends I was curious about -- but I've heard there's a sequel.

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