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michael5000's review against another edition
2.0
Apparently more about Thomas Mann than about Tintin per se. I can imagine giving it another shot if I ever come to terms with The Magic Mountain.
twicebaked's review against another edition
1.0
I started it in the preview. THIS IS HORRIBLE. Tintin doesn't read dumb murder stories, Snowy doesn't think Tintin should be in love (in the comics, I mean), Capt. Haddock has never been (and will never be) in love, like he says he is in the book, and this is a BOOK! Tintin isn't in BOOKS, he's in action - IN COMICS! Nobody can ever recreate Tintin. Especially if they're trying to recreate him as a romantic person. Only people who have never read the comics would like this. Maybe. Even then... and I don't mean to be all preachy but really Tintin isn't the person to read slutty books (even though that's not half as slutty as other stuff out there, but I don't like Tintin reading that ew). This book doesn't even deserve one star. The author has totally ruined Tintin. At least it's not the real Tintin, so that's good (and I'm not being dramatic - I mean, at least it's not the original Tintin...it's just a knock-off brand, that sort of thing). I would be scarred for life if Herge were the one who wrote it. I'd probably question his sanity...
I am a little bit (a lotta bit) mad that someone would make Tintin fall in love with someone and read dumb books and have Snowy be like yeah Tintin get a life because Tintin has gotten a life and it's a perfect life, one where you stay that age forever and you don't think you're 12 and you aren't regretting not having any love life and where you're just there to have adventures and be in books. And besides, I have a book crush on him. Not totally, but he's just great the way he is and I hate when people think they can tamper with a book/write a sequel and make it better. It irritates me so much.
I am a little bit (a lotta bit) mad that someone would make Tintin fall in love with someone and read dumb books and have Snowy be like yeah Tintin get a life because Tintin has gotten a life and it's a perfect life, one where you stay that age forever and you don't think you're 12 and you aren't regretting not having any love life and where you're just there to have adventures and be in books. And besides, I have a book crush on him. Not totally, but he's just great the way he is and I hate when people think they can tamper with a book/write a sequel and make it better. It irritates me so much.
littleredhat's review against another edition
2.0
There's a quotation on the back of my edition from The Times, which sums up this book's premise quite well:
"Frederic Tuten grabs Tintin by his quiff, yanks him out of his celibacy, life and innocence and drops him into sex, death, and experience…"
The book is controversial - and in some cases, outright despised - among Tintin fans for its portrayal of their beloved reporter hero. The book's title is not only a reference to its South American setting, but the protagnist's state of mind. Having long since dwelled in the realm of fanfiction and seen how certain writers warp other beloved characters, this wasn't a massive concern for me, but I have learnt the skill of separating the author's original creation from the fanon one in my head. If you are a big Tintin fan who's curious about this work and really don't like the idea of a more adult portrayal, you may want to mentally distance Hergé's Tintin from Tuten's before you pick this up.
I also knew up front that this book wasn't a Hergé story (although it was presumably published with his or the estate's blessing), but an avant-garde philosophical novel. All the same, far too much of the book was devoted to the discussion of ideas - society and its political structures, the importance and nature of art, and human frailties, among others - for my personal taste, due to the absence of any major plot. I found myself skimming paragraphs on more than one occasion.
That being said, there were a couple of standout moments. One chapter is devoted to a dream wherein Tintin lives out an entire lifetime at Marlinspike with his new love. This was beautifully written, and would arguably make an excellent short story on its own. There were also one or two ideas or motifs that did get me pondering, like Tintin's presumably eternal youth being linked to his innocence, and the suggestion that the letter sent to Tintin that allows him to "Follow now [his] destined but alterable track" as being sent by Hergé himself - a notion I didn't find too far-fetched, given that Hergé did write at least one public letter to his creation during his lifetime.
Would I have read this if it didn't feature Tintin as a character? Highly unlikely. Would I read it again? Probably not, except maybe to gloss over the dream chapter once more. Would I recommend it? If you like philosophical reads, then perhaps, but if it's a classic Tintin adventure you're after, stick with Hergé.
"Frederic Tuten grabs Tintin by his quiff, yanks him out of his celibacy, life and innocence and drops him into sex, death, and experience…"
The book is controversial - and in some cases, outright despised - among Tintin fans for its portrayal of their beloved reporter hero. The book's title is not only a reference to its South American setting, but the protagnist's state of mind. Having long since dwelled in the realm of fanfiction and seen how certain writers warp other beloved characters, this wasn't a massive concern for me, but I have learnt the skill of separating the author's original creation from the fanon one in my head. If you are a big Tintin fan who's curious about this work and really don't like the idea of a more adult portrayal, you may want to mentally distance Hergé's Tintin from Tuten's before you pick this up.
I also knew up front that this book wasn't a Hergé story (although it was presumably published with his or the estate's blessing), but an avant-garde philosophical novel. All the same, far too much of the book was devoted to the discussion of ideas - society and its political structures, the importance and nature of art, and human frailties, among others - for my personal taste, due to the absence of any major plot. I found myself skimming paragraphs on more than one occasion.
That being said, there were a couple of standout moments. One chapter is devoted to a dream wherein Tintin lives out an entire lifetime at Marlinspike with his new love. This was beautifully written, and would arguably make an excellent short story on its own. There were also one or two ideas or motifs that did get me pondering, like Tintin's presumably eternal youth being linked to his innocence, and the suggestion that the letter sent to Tintin that allows him to "Follow now [his] destined but alterable track" as being sent by Hergé himself - a notion I didn't find too far-fetched, given that Hergé did write at least one public letter to his creation during his lifetime.
Would I have read this if it didn't feature Tintin as a character? Highly unlikely. Would I read it again? Probably not, except maybe to gloss over the dream chapter once more. Would I recommend it? If you like philosophical reads, then perhaps, but if it's a classic Tintin adventure you're after, stick with Hergé.
matgala's review against another edition
1.0
Dolent és poc. Fins i tot horrible es queda curt a l'hora de descriure aquest llibre. No val la pena ni molestar-se a obrir-lo.
Jo esperava retrobar-m'hi l'amic Tintín, el que anava amb en Milú i tota la resta. I sí, hi apareixen. Però només de nom. Aquest intent de llibre només agafa el nom d'en Tintín i li dóna una personalitat completament diferent. El llibre no té ni solta ni volta: entre les converses avorrides i sense sentit i moments en què l'autor sembla que s'hagi fumat alguna cosa i hagi perdut el fil del que estava dient, poca cosa (o gairebé res) és aprofitable.
En resum: un dels pitjors llibres que he llegit a la meva vida.
Jo esperava retrobar-m'hi l'amic Tintín, el que anava amb en Milú i tota la resta. I sí, hi apareixen. Però només de nom. Aquest intent de llibre només agafa el nom d'en Tintín i li dóna una personalitat completament diferent. El llibre no té ni solta ni volta: entre les converses avorrides i sense sentit i moments en què l'autor sembla que s'hagi fumat alguna cosa i hagi perdut el fil del que estava dient, poca cosa (o gairebé res) és aprofitable.
En resum: un dels pitjors llibres que he llegit a la meva vida.
sonyakyr's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Very pretentious with never-ending descriptions.
jasminenoack's review against another edition
3.0
This book is super reminiscent of magic mountain, and on actually thinking about it, was the reason I even tried to read magic mountain. I'm as a rule not great at remembering character names, so I didn't realize that the book was using the supporting cast of magic mountain (in fact I couldn't even tell you the name of the main character from magic mountain). But about 30 pages in I thought to myself this writing is really very reminiscent of magic mountain.
This book is what would happen if you got out a blender and threw in the movie 9, latin american mythology, china mieville (of un lun dun and kraken not so much the city and the city), magic mountain, umberto eco (specifically his ideas on modernism and irony), and vanilla ice cream and made a shake.
There isn't much that could be brought up about the plot without spoiling parts of the book. Don't read the introduction before you read it.
The book holds fast on some nice solid mocking and is just more generally an interesting read.
I don't know about this book specifically but greg I think you might like the author.
also:
This book is what would happen if you got out a blender and threw in the movie 9, latin american mythology, china mieville (of un lun dun and kraken not so much the city and the city), magic mountain, umberto eco (specifically his ideas on modernism and irony), and vanilla ice cream and made a shake.
There isn't much that could be brought up about the plot without spoiling parts of the book. Don't read the introduction before you read it.
The book holds fast on some nice solid mocking and is just more generally an interesting read.
I don't know about this book specifically but greg I think you might like the author.
also:
plaidbrarian's review against another edition
1.0
An attempt to take a serious, more "artistic" look at beloved Belgian kids' adventure comic character Tintin, but it doesn't work all that well because A.) you have to be incredibly well-versed in Tintin going into this to really appreciate it; and B.) you have to be the sort of person who can read a 100+ page dream sequence and actually think it wasn't a colossal waste of time.
mw2k's review
1.0
Actually read this book years ago, just adding it today for posterity.
I didn't like it. If there's one character in this world who doesn't need postmodernist deconstruction, it's Tintin. Captain Haddock didn't need to be put through the po-mo grinder either.
I didn't like it. If there's one character in this world who doesn't need postmodernist deconstruction, it's Tintin. Captain Haddock didn't need to be put through the po-mo grinder either.