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Title: Disappointed for the First Time
Review: I have been working my way through Zola's twenty novels. For better or worse once I begin a book I must finish it, even if I feel punished by doing so. The book starts out promising enough. While not a believer I still enjoyed Zola's description of the mystery of the Catholic Mass. While I was brought up as a Catholic I really never believed in God and certainly never knew all the nuances of the Mass. It is certainly complicated. But the hundred pages or so he spends describing joyfull plants and flowers and trees left me irritated and quite annoyed. He did not need to spend a hundred pages describing the Garden of Eden and man's temptation. A few pages would have sufficed. You get the idea. I'm surprised Zola went so far off the mark here. Well, everybody makes mistakes.
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