Parade's End

This is my latest bookworm project. 

Parade's End is an omnibus of four novels written by Ford Madox Ford from 1924-1928. I am very much reminded of the early seasons of Downton Abbey, since the setting is in the years prior to and during WWI.

I had the book on my Kindle...don't remember how it got there, but there it is. I also found an audiobook for a very low price at Hastings' before they closed their doors forever. It's a little awkward, but I've been both reading and audiobooking for a week now.

 The main character, Christopher Tietjens, an upper-class public servant and the people in his world are nearly incomprehensible to me and seem prissy and frivolous. There are all these subtle variances of how people should behave and how far bad behavior can be carried as long as it doesn't come off as bad form. It didn't occur to me until the end of Disc 3 that Ford means for readers to feel irritated and distanced from them because the war is going to change their world.

Even with that fresh understanding, Parade's End is challenging. I've talked back to the audiobook several times:
Who the hell cares?
 Oh, shut up. 
Stop pronouncing golf as gulf.

30 discs. Don't think I'll finish before the end of 2016. Sometimes I get that failed fainthearted Villette feeling, but I'm determined to go on. Stay tuned.