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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautifully written, compelling characters, an interesting story of sisterhood.
This was a dense read for me. I put it down about 200 hundred pages in and then came back to it, and am glad I did. I don't think that I can claim to understand all the religious philosophy, but I really did enjoy the characters and the story. Helen and Esther were such interesting protagonists, and I loved learning about a piece of history I knew nothing about. Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam and London, life during plague times, even document conservation - definitely lots of research by the author and I loved reading about it.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So interesting! I love learning history I am not very familiar with from fiction. I am a sucker for a strong female protagonist and this novel has 2! Kadish beautifully weaves the old and the new and allows the reader to be fully immersed in two time periods. This book breaks your heart, but it's such a beautiful heartbreak that it is worth every word. You are rooting for Helen & "Aleph" the whole book.
I think there is something in me -- some peculiar, intuitive sense -- that knows when I am getting too close to an uncomfortable truth.
It perks up and says, "Perhaps now would be a good time to stop reading this book and go do something else. You might not like what you find out about yourself if you keep going."
This was a book like that for me. But it was also a book like that for each of the characters within it.
And, perhaps all of us?
There is the life we are living visibly. But, if we keep going, there is also the life that we are holding back. There is the life we desperately desire, the one we can barely even whisper to ourselves, let alone pursue. There are all the ugly things in us that we wish did not exist and cannot control. There are things we wish were in us, but sadly, are not. Who are we, in the end? Which self? The courageous one? Or the coward? What if we do not like the answer we know to be the truth? What if we've run out of time?
I cannot tell if I liked this book or not, honestly. It is hard to read a story pushes all these thoughts forward.
But then, it is comforting to remember that being alive means being full of contradiction, and gray area, and paths not taken. It is nothing unique.
It perks up and says, "Perhaps now would be a good time to stop reading this book and go do something else. You might not like what you find out about yourself if you keep going."
This was a book like that for me. But it was also a book like that for each of the characters within it.
And, perhaps all of us?
There is the life we are living visibly. But, if we keep going, there is also the life that we are holding back. There is the life we desperately desire, the one we can barely even whisper to ourselves, let alone pursue. There are all the ugly things in us that we wish did not exist and cannot control. There are things we wish were in us, but sadly, are not. Who are we, in the end? Which self? The courageous one? Or the coward? What if we do not like the answer we know to be the truth? What if we've run out of time?
I cannot tell if I liked this book or not, honestly. It is hard to read a story pushes all these thoughts forward.
But then, it is comforting to remember that being alive means being full of contradiction, and gray area, and paths not taken. It is nothing unique.