The last word from the realm of Faerie.

My big fat novel came to an immensely satisfying close today. In a big plot-driven novel, you don't maybe expect that you'll continue to be surprised all the way to the end, but I was, several times, and the ending was so elegant it brought a tear to my eye and gave me a frisson of delight at the same time. At almost eight hundred pages, that's saying quite a bit.

So, I'm recommending that you all read this book. Don't you want to?  After how long I've gone on and on about it? and whined about the largeness of it?  Well, I think you should.  Here are my guidelines for reading it, extracted painstakingly from my experience, especially for you, to make your life easier, because that's just how I am:

1. Get a paperback copy, because the hardback copy is (a) large, ergo (b) heavy, unwieldy, and in general a pain to wrangle.

2. Get your own copy, because it will take you longer than your library's slightly ungenerous three weeks to finish it. I'd offer you my copy, but it's the hardback (see (1) above).

3. Be prepared, just like a Boy Scout, to go with the eddies and flows. Admire the style. Do not skip the footnotes.

4. Right--there are footnotes. Don't let that scare you.

5. Hope against hope that when they make this into a movie, they don't screw it up.