[bypeTeenehalT]

Mirabell, I thought the idea of a Gothic novel written by Sarah Waters was interesting. As far as I know, Shigekuni and Mirabell are the same person, whether male or female is not relevant.

But while the Mirabell-Self is succinct to the point of being curt, and throwing out hopefully hurtful one-line put-downs, the Shigekuni-Self goes to the other extreme: soft, feathery verbiage.

As with what Nnyhav writes, I cannot always grasp what the book reviewed is about. Shigekuni's problem is not, as with Nnyhav, that he wraps everything up in vine leaves of enigma. Shigekuni uses too many words to say simple things. The story of "The Little Stranger", even allowing for the presence or absence of spoilers, was not "quickly told", as stated. The reader, i.e. me, got lost in the thickets of words, so that I couldn't really get a clear and concise picture of the book, except that it's about Gothic carryings-on in a mansion.

Shigekuni makes pertinent points, but by the time you've waded through yet another paragraph, you've forgotten those small concise observations which, if strung together more tightly, would give us more immediate information.

Maybe Shigekuni could learn concision from Mirabell, whilst the latter could learn a warmth of human feeling, friendly engagement with peers, and openness from Shigekuni.