Name: Century's Son
ISBN: 9780312422318

Robert Boswell

A Novel

Century's Son

Kristen Claiborn

Every now and then I have the opportunity to really dig into some books on my TBR backlist. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like, but my reading lists are self-imposed so I only have myself to blame. This book has been hanging around my house for years…it followed me from Albuquerque to Indianapolis, from a crappy apartment to the house I now share with my now-husband. I’m not entirely sure why it stuck around as long as it did, however, I finally decided to pick it up and read it. After I finished, I had some regrets. 
	Books aren’t THAT big. One book doesn’t take up THAT much space, and by itself it’s certainly not even very heavy. Yet after I finished this one, I felt the weight of every book that I kept around for no logical reason. I have a copy of The Catcher in the Rye that I’ve held onto since high school and I have no idea why. Is it because I need to revisit it every now and then to remind myself how terrible it is? I dunno. This particular book wasn’t huge, thank goodness. If it had been a big one, I might have abandoned my love for reading altogether. None of the characters in this book seems happy. They all appear to hate their lives and current situations. They don’t even seem to like each other. Is that the lesson of this book? To remind us that life is just a series of tolerances until we die? Why did Boswell write a book about nothing very specific except unhappiness and inevitability? 
	I genuinely didn’t like this book. It was a struggle to get through. I felt like I was watching old episodes of Seinfeld…except every now and then the cast of Seinfeld laughed. I can’t get the hours it took to read it back, but I assure whoever has to move my books in the future that this tome will not be amongst them.

Century's Son A Novel

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