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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Author pulls you into the imagined world and mind of Pliny the Elder, well done, though I don’t find his imagined world very likable.
Pliny the Elder
I am lying on my stomach on a blanket outside the villa, baking under the sun. My sister's boy, little Gaius, is wobbling around me. He is making a speech he has prepared, in which he appeals to Lucretia not to take her own life after her rape by Tarquinius. I am lying here sweating, listening to a child tackle the elastics of guilt. It is partly comforting and partly alarming to hear him weigh the notion as deftly as any lawyer in the Forum. He is already indifferent. I can no longer feel the border between my body and the world, the hot blanket, the warm air. When I lie here, eyes closed, I feel borderless. The birds sing in me, the boy, with his hypocrite talk and theatrical gesticulation, walks in me. The tall plane tree, thronged by cicadas, snaps and hisses. I lie in the sun with my eyes closed, watching the illuminated insides of my lids. Warm red. In Germania, I saw a king sacrifice a bull to his gods. The bull's blood was collected in a silver basin on an altar of turf. When the basin was full, the king placed a thin wooden disc on the surface. A face had been cut into each side of the disc. One was angry and warlike, the other was laughing, tongue snaking from the open mouth. The disc, its laughing face up, trembled in the steaming blood. Then the king placed the bull's testicles on the disc, which sank under their weight and then popped back up, now with the angry war face on top. An omen, I believe. I feel like that laughing face now as it turned towards the bottom. [107–8]
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Solid book for Pliny enjoyers. It might make you like him more, but most likely, it’ll just personify him as a fat, spoiled, philosopher-wannabe who dreamed about the stars.
Weird. Very well written. Would not read again. Author translates Latin literature which comes through in his writing style.
dark
funny
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was amusing in its quirkiness... this would probably be even more fascinating to a classical scholar as it is a kind of pastiche of historical reporting/biography/ fiction.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
So imagery and writing style is absolutely incredible throughout the book. Voetmann does a really good job making the voice consistent but still slightly varied between characters. It reminds me a lot of the second chapter of Master and Margherita if it were expanded up (just in vibes) and if it was super fragmentary. I know it is meant to be ironic for the most part and I did like the humor at parts. However, there was just too much talk of rape in a very light way that annoyed me slightly. I understand how it's accurate to the time (and it was fun to read given that I'm quite familiar with the time period it was written in) but it still felt like it was making light of the rape of slaves and children. Even though I love dark humor it was a little too indeterminate at points.
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes