Dispatches From War (and Peace): Book One, Part II, Week Three

So I agreed to read War and Peace over the course of the year with a good friend of mine. (Who probably needs a nom de plume here. A blog de plume? Or would that be nom de blog? Let's see, she's good at so many things, but I can't think of any catchy names for any of them. It took me the whole blog post to think of something, I just filled her name in with ????, but I have it at last: KitchLit. She really likes cooking and cookbooks and books to do with cooking and she's my Number One resource for restaurant advice. This name should have really occurred to me sooner.) I was prepared for the length and I was even prepared for everyone having three names, this is not my first Russian novel, my friends. However, I don't think I adequately prepared myself for my mind not managing to retain who anybody is for longer than a chapter. Even worse, this was my own idea, so I can't even complain that I'm being forced.

Past having to flip back to the previous part every other page to find the origin story of someone who sounds vaguely familiar, I'm invested in how this all turns out now. Which is good, since I have to see it through whether I'm invested or not. The first part, which I read last month before the birth of the blog (aren't you lucky to have missed that?), was in the 'peace' part, although everyone was talking about the war-to-come. I enjoyed this part, it was all people in society, dinner parties, and politics. Plus there was a deathbed conspiracy, which was very exciting, if a little confusing when I kept forgetting who was who in the conspiracy.

We have left Part I behind now, though, and it is Part II, which is very much reminding us of the 'war' half of this proposition. Now I have to keep track of names *and* a running list of battles. I've sort of given up on that part, I have to admit. They're fighting and I know the general country they're in at the moment. That's going to have to be good enough to be getting on with. Plus, plus!, all of the women are gone, which is very demoralizing. The women were the best part of the first part! I'm pinning all my hopes now on Rostov, who is young and idealistic and endearingly optimistic, so his perspective is entertaining. Although I still don't really understand what happened when he was at the camp. (Probably camp? When they weren't marching.) He'd just gone to confront the soldier who'd stolen money from his superior, we see the confrontation, then his superior is chewing him out for having gone to confront the soldier and a subsequent argument (maybe?) with a different superior who was also there. I flipped back at least twice, sure I must have missed something because the other superior was never mentioned in the scene and I thought it had been resolved with their argument. I've accepted it and moved on, but I'm still confused and not 100% certain that my book isn't missing pages.

Well, I'm sure this was very exciting to all concerned - tune in next week for more of me patiently waiting for a woman to show back up again in this book. Failing that you might get to hear my rant about how Tolstoy treated his wife and why this book should have both their names on it. Hurry back!