the swan thieves by elizabeth kostova

i'm so frustrated that i wasted so much time on this book. it's long. i read about 400 pages before i finally threw in the towel. i skimmed over the rest of it to see what happened in the end . . . definitely not worth it.

it's very disappointing because i loved kostova's the historian so much.

this novel is all about paintings and artists and obsession stemming from mental illness. i didn't like the narrator (boring, didn't care about him in the least); i disliked the pivotal character (oblivious, selfish, self-destrictive); didn't care about the women involved with the pivotal character (insignificant in any way). 

boring, tedious, wordy, a lot of pointless back-story . . . and all for an ending you could pull out of a write-your-own-novel workbook.

don't waste your time.