Literary Glance: The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough

A literary glance to me is usually the first 5-10 pages of a book.  I start a lot of books just to get a feel for them, and I think making a judgement after 5-10 pages is somewhat fair.

Right now I’m on page 268 of The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough.  Normally, that’s way more than a ‘glance,’ but that 268 pages is less than 30% of the book and less than 5% of the total number of pages in the series.  It’s still more than a ‘glance,’ but at least you know where I’m coming from. I’m not very far into the series, but I have a good idea of whether or not I’ll like the book (and series).

I’m not going to summarize The First Man in Rome because you can get that anywhere.  I will say, though, that it’s not as much of a slog as I thought it would be.  The opening scene is a little dull, and the similarity of names confused me a little at first.  Even with so many characters, the scenes with each individual character are long enough so that I can keep track of the stories easily, even with the long similar names.  

I’m not saying that I’ll finish The First Man in Rome, but I might.  I just might.

The best part of reading a 900+ page epic novel is that you get your money’s worth, especially if you bought the book cheap at a used book store.  The worst part of reading an epic 900+ page book, though, is that it keeps you from reading a bunch of other much shorter novels that might be just as good (or better) in their own ways.  But that’s for another blog post.

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What do YOU think? Is The First Man in Rome worth reading? Are novels like this common today? What other 900+ page epics are worth reading?

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Here are more Dysfunctional Book Reviews!

Literary Glance: Dune by Frank Herbert 

Julius Caesar Was a Swell Guy (according to War Commentaries of Caesar by Julius Caesar) 

Literary Gimmicks in Famous Books: No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy  

Literary Glance: The Corrections by Johnathan Franzen

 Literary Glance: It by Stephen King 

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A grammar-obsessed English teacher falls in ‘luuuvvv’ but discovers how chaotic and dangerous ‘luuuvvv’ can be.

Or you can buy a copy here on Amazon!

Not sure? Read a sample chapter of The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy.