running with swan thieves

im reading haruki murakami's what i talk about when i talk about running. i started running again. im not finished with it, so this isn't a review, its just a me saying that ive started running again, which will hopefully lead to me permanently quitting smoking. i read a quote from linda ronstadt in a health book saying something along the lines of running being the best cure for depression. im not saying im depressed, its silly to self-diagnose something as insubstantial and subjective as depression. im just saying, i can understand why she'd say that. i can understand why murakami would write an entire memoir about it. he was a 70 cigarette a day bar owner when he started running, and now he runs marathons. its the perfect example of "if he can do that then so can i."

i did, however, finish reading the swan thieves by elizabeth kostova, like i mentioned in the previous post. id read the historian when i was a freshman in college. its a tome, so i felt a wee bit awesome carrying it around with me while i read it. plus the cover is awesome.
i loved the historian. i loved that there was an anthropologist in it, since anthropology was my major at the time, and i hadnt encountered many anthropologists in pop culture beyond indiana jones, and hes definitely a joke in the anthro world.
i didnt remember much about kostova's writing style when i started swan thieves. i just knew id loved her previous work, so i naturally thought id love her newest one. the premise surrounds a tortured artist arrested and committed for trying to attack a work of impressionism at the met in new york. leda, by gilbert thomas. the man's psychiatrist, marlow, becomes obsessed with the man and his illness, and begins to show similarities to his patient as the book progresses and he becomes more involved with him.
i dont do it justice, really, whenit comes to summarizing the plot. the story line isnt bad at all, but it certainly isnt deep enough to fill 500+ pages. i found myself waiting for the action to begin, and still waiting, come page 300, 400... the jet-setting, conspiracy-theoried, treasure-hunting, genre-filled action of the historian wasnt present in the swan thieves at all. the pace was slow, and stayed that way throughout. it became a story of one man's women, essentially. they were smart women, though, and he was a charming and handsome and tortured artist. whats not to love aout that? except everything. ive had my fill of those kinds of men, and reading about one, especially coming from a woman, kind of angered me. im no feminist, feminists give feminism a bad name, but i really am tired of seeing this happen in literature. tortured artist not too tortured to get laid on the reg, break hearts and souls, leaving striken and single women in his wake. yet his torture stems not from his actions and playboy ways, but is completely self-contained and nurtured.
im not sure what im trying to say anymore about the novel. it was boring, but i finished it. it had its good parts, kostova's prose is beautiful and lyrical and picturesque and all that happy horse shit. she certainly knows how to write, to describe and set scenes and make me wish i were a repressed 19th century female impressionist painter in love with my husbands elderly uncle. oh yeah, thats part of the story, too.