War and Peace

After an arduous, but completely satisfying, two and a half months, I turned the last page of War and Peace.

I've gotta admit that it wasn't easy getting through some parts, but many others had my eyes glued to the pages, sometimes reading when it was definitely not a good time to be reading, i.e. during work.  This is the longest I've read a single novel, and although I know that I don't completely grasp all that Tolstoy was trying to accomplish with it, I have absolutely fallen in love with his book.

Leo Tolstoy has risen to the top of my list of authors, not because of all the things I've heard about him, but because he simply is, almost effortlessly, the best writer I know.  He flawlessly executes sentences that speak in volumes using a most concise diction-- he doesn't waste words trying to do what can be done with a few quaint phrases.

But more than that, I love who he was, or who I believe him to have been through what I've read.  He's vastly knowledgeable of high society, and yet he subtly seems to indicate through his speculations that he is disagreeable towards the gentry-- I think he speaks through Pierre who, although, is not a part of the aristocracy by upbringing, suddenly finds himself in such company due to a large fortune left to him by his late illegitimate father.  I think Tolstoy identifies with Pierre the most, as he becomes the richest character with the most depth, undergoing the biggest arc of change throughout the entire one and a half thousand pages of the novel.

And just who do I believe Tolstoy to have been?  A God-fearing lover of Man, not for their actions but for their potential, a true idealist who believes in change through patience, a man who advocates that the best change for the abstract world comes from loving the ones immediately around us and that real change begins with what we know.  I love him for being idealistic in the most realistic way one can be.

It was just a really great book by a really great author.