4 Responses to This Month’s Book
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[...] Ah, I’m glad about this one, since I’ve been feeling guilty for not writing about Water for Elephants, which I was sent as part of my friend Cara’s online reading group, Love A Book. [...]
I must confess I was prejudiced at the outset- the front page description of this book as a “delicious page-turner” and the ornate title font led me to think this was going to be a very light romantic gallop. To be fair, it was more than this- particularly given the harrowing context of life in Ceaucescu’s Roumania in the 1980s. I found the parts dealing with the emotions arising as a result of the separation of Nora from her boyfriend Gigi and her family after she had escaped Roumania particularly poignant but was surprised that the dilemmas this scenario spawned were not explored in greater depth. And overall I found this an unsatisfactory book in a number of ways. Particularly early on, I felt that the writing was “clunky”, and the pace quite odd- sudden significant events occurring in a matter of a few lines without any real build –up with the story then quickly moving on. I was also irritated by the apparent need to make reference to lists of artists and composers at various points- as if to prove that the research had been done. Whilst there was a clear story line- and some interesting inter-connections built in along the way, ultimately I found the characterisation quite two-dimensional leaving me with very little real interest in the outcome.
[...] I did have to copy & paste that author’s name haha! This was part of the book club at Love A Book and I actually won my very own copy of this book. By the cover alone, it wasn’t the sort of [...]
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