Lost: An Apt Title, But Not in the Way He Intended-Mild Spoilers

I finished Lost last night.  Overall, I was unimpressed, though there were some lovely passages.  Frankly, I don't see what the story had to do with Ebenezer Scrooge aside from the tenuous family connection.  It was as if Maguire wanted to write a "regular" novel, but was afraid his readers wouldn't accept it without a fairy-tale trapping or two.

It was chock full of literary allusions, and Maguire had a great deal of fun playing with the idea of ghosts and the past as a spirit we all make and carry with us.  The ideas were engaging, but Winnie Rudge Pritzke was an eminently unlikeable character who lapsed into judgmental proselytizing and was a consummate user of those around her, and I couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy even after her tale of woe unfolded.

The book could have lost sixty pages and not suffered.  The beginning seventy-five suffered from a terminal case of drag-ass, and I almost stopped reading.  Maguire devoted entire pages to the romanticism of British English, and while I am inclined to agree with him, I didn't care, nor did I see a place for it in the story.  Or the two workmen, to whom he dedicated one hundred and thirty-five pages, only to drop them without a trace.

In short, not his best work.  It was mediocre at best, and I have higher hopes for Mirror, Mirror and Son of a Witch.

I'm using Performancing, a Firefox blog editor add-on, to make this post.  Has anyone else used it?  What are your impressions?  I prefer Lochjournal's drafting feature, honestly, but we'll see.