I’m completely blown away by Émile Zola’s Germinal

I finished this book today and I still can't believe how good it is!

For me it was a bit of a slow start, and I had a hard time caring about the large number of characters introduced in quick succession at the beginning. But somehow the story grew on me and by the halfway point the book became difficult to put down. I never cry when reading, but two scenes in this book brought me close. One was the murder of Jules, the new recruit on sentry duty, who had been longing very much to be put on leave and reunite with his mother and sister in his hometown. The other was the moment when Etienne was rescued from the collapsed mine and when Negrel and Etienne despite being former enemies embraced each other and cried with relief.

All the class warfare politics aside, it's just such an amazing story fully of love, struggle, and humanity. Zola gave subtlety and depth to each character. Every person had some good in them, and acts of villainy were always understandably motivated by circumstances, rather than being purely driven by the plot's need for a villain. Even Chaval, whom I deplored for most of the book, had his shining moment when he rescued Catherine from methane and carbon dioxide suffocation. I also love how the story's point of view shifted back and forth between the perspective of the miners and that of the gentry, instead of focusing solely on the miners. Even members of the relatively affluent part of town, the "bourgeoisie" who were supposed to be hated in this story, were ultimately just normal human beings, each with their own desires and struggles. At first I thought I was gonna root for the miners, but at the very end I realized that every character had something to root for (okay maybe not every character due to the possible exception of Chaval, but you get my point).

If you have also read Germinal, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it as well as Zola's other works. I've definitely become a fan of Zola and will probably take a look at other books in his corpus, especially if you guys have any recommendations. If you haven't read Germinal, I highly recommend it!!