Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Grant on the Rebound

As many classmates probably felt the same, I honestly thought The Daughter of Time was just another typical one of those novels/books that professors assign to read that I just skim through before class and hope for the best. I decided to give this book a chance because it was a mystery. New year, new mindset? Ha, maybe. 
In the beginning chapters, Alan Grant is given a challenge by his actress friend, Marta Hallard, which was to solve the oldest unsolved case. Challenge accepted. I put myself into his shoes, well, rather his hospital bed, because I wanted to understand his excitement. There's a certain rush you get when you see that you're making progress in a mystery that has never been solved. He uses different resources such as books and people but I kind of sat back and thought to myself, "Why didn't he check to see how reliable these sources are?" I understand that there was no internet back then but still, we have known for a long time that not everything said or written on paper is to be believed. 
As I reached Chapter 7 when Grant realizes that More's account of Richard III couldn't possibly be reliable because More was a mere 5-years-old when Richard III took the throne. Let's just take a minute to think about that time frame. It doesn't match up. Awwww, Grant was making progress. What a disappointment to read that he couldn't use that to help unravel the mystery so basically he had to start over.
I just couldn't help to think that this is exactly how Alan Grant felt when he finally understood that all of the information that he had received up to chapter 7 was bullcrap. He had to be lying in the hospital bed in the worst mood ever. Think about it, whenever we think that we're on to something and realize that we got nothing, we typically feel like giving up and/or moving on but he couldn't do that. He's put too much work into it. With this setback, it only makes me more intrigued to keep reading to find out what happens next. 

2 comments:

  1. I liked how you went into reading the book with an open mind. I agree with what you said about how he must've been frustrated. Its like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel only to realize it was a figment of your imagination. Nice post.

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  2. I also thought that this would not be a book that I would not enjoy, but it was pretty interesting. Without reading this book I would not have learned all the information about Richard III, that I know now. I agree with you when I got to that point in the novel when he started reading More's book, I thought that he would give up. I was very encouraging and uplifting that he stuck threw and came to a conclusion about Richard.

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