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The poetry was more effective than prose at describing emotion and less at describing events. This was a short snapshot of a book that showed a single moment in time.

The events toward the end of the book re-framed the rest in a clever way.

Because this was so short, I read it as a chapter a day over a month. I think that helped me absorb each chapter more instead of speeding through it.

Overall I found this effective and a good companion piece to Shogun, and does not require the reader to be religious or Catholic to see the protagonist's point of view.

The character of Kichijiro was very interesting, and I tend to think the fumie came from Rodrigues' own mind, but that God was speaking to Rodrigues to Kichijiro. Kichijiro felt like the most fleshed-out Japanese character.

I thought it was kind of jarring to switch from Rodrigues perspective to third person, and I'm not sure I understand why Endo did it.

I thought the epilogue was effective in showing how the remainder of Rodrigues' life was just a footnote after the events of the novel.

Reading so I can watch the movie later.

After seeing the movie, I thought I knew what do expect, but I wasn't prepared for the entire My Pafology novella to be included in the book. It was similar to American Psycho where I saw what was happening and it was good and I got it, but that's still a lot of intentionally bad prose to wade through.

I found the family drama rang true.

I naturally found myself comparing the book to the movie, and one thing the movie didn't get across was that Monk's academic/serious writing was just as unreadable as My Pafology.

This is one of those books where me rating it highly is more a matter of recognizing it's well crafted that feeling fully bought in. The characters were funny and the language was very artfully crafted, but I still had trouble feeling excited about it for some reason.

I do enjoy that there's a little edge to the entire situation. Jeeves is a thousand times more competent than Wooster. Is the class system just so powerful that this is the best Jeeves can do, or is Jeeves in it just because it's easy and he enjoys messing with Bertie?

No big urge to jump into another one, but I will revisit when I'm in a different mood.

Book club pick. Because of being written in verse and short chapters, I'll be reading one chapter a day.

Reading because a school friend loved P.G. Wodehouse and I've never tried it.

It was clear how much joy the author had in having the platform and she grabbed it with both hands to make the most of it. She had no fear of going after tough issues.

I enjoyed the different characterization of Reese and Ames, and the contrast between their experiences.

I don't need everything spelled out, but I would have appreciated a little more closure with the ending, especially with the book seeming to slow down in the last quarter.