Mists of Avalon - mid-read thoughts

I'm reading The Mists of Avalon, finally. My woman has been telling me for a long time that I should read it. I tried to start it more than a year ago, and couldn't get into it. This time though, I'm to the point that it's going to have to get dramatically worse in order to make me put it down. That said, it's not a pleasant book. I think that's odd because I've read other books that she claims as "favorite" and they've been good books, well-balanced, and with a good payoff.

This book feels very unbalanced to me. The list of like-able characters is Arthur (who's like-able, but obtuse and therefore comes across as unintelligent) and Merlin (who's ancient and wise and therefore incapable of base emotions, apparently.) That's the entire list of people who are easy to not hate. If you're familiar with the Arthurian saga at all, you know how big the cast of characters is. Everyone who is not faceless is so flawed as to be unlikeable, and the unfortunate thing is that there aren't enough redeeming qualities to counterbalance that problem.

Take for instance Lancelot (Lancelet in this story). He's lecherous (which is a given, because that's how the story goes), he's fickle, and he's got this weird bisexual erotic triangle going on with Arthur and Gwenhwyfar. Which is just fine if that's how you're going to play it, but everyone pretends it's not going on, or tries to manipulate each other through it. It's annoying.

Morgaine is also fairly like-able, but only because she develops a little as a character. She starts out just as spiteful as everyone else. Since she's the heroine of the story, I guess she gets to grow out of it.

My other gripe is this: Part of the story is also a religious "Cold War" style clash. That's actually kinda cool, except that the author is biased. I don't mind that either, but to have it put across so blatantly gets old. In this book, all christians are either stupid, or manipulative, or evil, or fanatical, or some combination. There are no christians who are basically good people. There are not christians who are basically misguided. There are just different levels of bad. Meanwhile, most of the druids are loving and understanding and caring and if they aren't those things, they grow into those things. It's unrealistic. Not all christians are bad people. Not all pagans are good people. However, all people are people.

Anyway, I was talking to my woman about it, and I've decided that I'm right. One of my favorite authors also has a character who's frequently doing dumb things, but one of the counterbalances for his stupidity is a friend of his who tells him when he's being stupid. This book needs several of those characters, on both sides of the fence.

I'm 400 pages into the 870 odd pages of this book, and I know, by now, if you're still reading, you're asking why I'm continuing if I'm not enjoying it that much. I'm looking for the payoff. After putting me through as much aggravation as this book has, the payoff will be spectacular. Otherwise, I just don't see how this book is so popular. So, I'll keep plugging away, because I know how it ends. All Arthur stories have one ending, and I love that ending. I want to see if Bradley can make that ending into as big a finish as she's led me to believe that she can.