Flaubert's Parrot

So far Flaubert's Parrot is a hit or miss with me. I like some things and greatly dislike others. For example, in the second chapter it goes into a chronology of Flaubert's life, and describes very boring parts about it. Parts that you don't really want to hear, because they are kind of sad. Flaubert was one child out of five that actually survived. No one thought he would survive. His father didn't even have faith at all, so he ended up digging a grave in anticipation of Flaubert's death. Flaubert survives out of sheer luck. He lives to be known as the "family idiot." Julian Barnes puts together this chronology which really is not as great as he would have wanted. It switches off too much to really understand what is going on with it. It starts out as a narration of Flaubert's amazing life then develops into Flaubert actually talking about himself and how he feels. He talks about certain topics and questions about them, but there really is no identifiable person that he is talking to. This kind of adds to his overall personality. Maybe he is really mentally sick and "slow" leading to his general life.