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3.05 AVERAGE
3.05 AVERAGE
I thought this book was going to be very different from what it was, and unfortunately I did not like it. I read to almost the halfway point, to get to the third time period (in Venice, Italy) to see if it would offer anything interesting in any of the three different time periods, but I was disappointed and decided not to finish. It just honestly was not very interesting or exciting, the writing wasn't particularly great to make a mild story be worthwhile, it seemed way too long and it was hard to see where it was all going. I heard a fellow book club member say that other reviews said it wasn't clear how the three stories even intertwined by the end, so rather than suffer through I decided to move on to something else. I wish this had been as good as I thought it was going to be.
I will read (almost) any book about Venice (California and Italy) so was excited to find The Mirror Thief set in both Venice Beach and Venice Italy - as well as The Venetian in Las Vegas - never mentioning the name of any of these. So I really really really wanted to like it - but it was tough going. The author doesn't make it easy - I think he really wants you to have to look things up.
Nearly every page contained at least one word that needed to be looked up, something in Italian, something in Latin, a whole paragraph in French. While I don't usually mind this, it was just too much- the paperback version of book is already over 500 pages long.
And after working through all those pages - no big reveal at the end. You can believe what you want to believe. I read a couple of reviews including an interview with the author and it looks like that was his intention. I did give it 4 stars, however, one was for the Venices.
Nearly every page contained at least one word that needed to be looked up, something in Italian, something in Latin, a whole paragraph in French. While I don't usually mind this, it was just too much- the paperback version of book is already over 500 pages long.
And after working through all those pages - no big reveal at the end. You can believe what you want to believe. I read a couple of reviews including an interview with the author and it looks like that was his intention. I did give it 4 stars, however, one was for the Venices.
Gave up on this one... too much description, not enough plot to hold it together. (At least, by page 180.) For those of you that finished, kudos.
This book didn't really live up to its promise. It started out with an interesting premise, but soon devolved into confusion and the three Venices in three different times didn't really come together into a coherent whole. I don't necessarily need a book to come to a neat conclusion, but this one left so many threads and loose ends hanging that it felt unfinished and unsatisfying. Yet, at almost 600 pages, it was also in need of a good edit and tightening up. Many times the descriptive prose detracted from the story. As a visual person, I like description, but when it doesn't add to the story or my understanding of the context, then it's simply superfluous.
Booksellers have pushed this book so I tried it. You know how sometimes you can tell in the first 50 pages that there is no way you are going to get into this book? This is one, for me. Glad I took it out f the library.
Loved the set up, with three interlocking stories, but I got bogged down in the last third of the book and had to struggle to finish it. I'm also not at all clear what even happened at the end.
Thank goodness for Melville House who published this book without requiring the author to water it down and make it like other books out there that promises to be serious then reads like a romance thriller. The Mirror Thief does not do that.
Several reviewers commented that the end of the book did not satisfy them for a variety of reasons. I found, on the contrary, that the ending made me want to go back to the beginning and reread from a different perspective. Looking forward to having time for that someday.
Are there some challenges with language and style? Of course. Thank goodness. For me they were more in the contemporary gambling scenes because I have so little interest in it. Since I actually have a special interest in Venice and its long relationship with the Byzantine and subsequent Turkish empires, that section was a joy to read. My only critique would be that I found Crivano the least fully-realized character in some ways. It may have something to do with age of the character vs age of the author. For example we understand the young Stanley better than the old Stanley (whom of course we barely meet).
Several reviewers commented that the end of the book did not satisfy them for a variety of reasons. I found, on the contrary, that the ending made me want to go back to the beginning and reread from a different perspective. Looking forward to having time for that someday.
Are there some challenges with language and style? Of course. Thank goodness. For me they were more in the contemporary gambling scenes because I have so little interest in it. Since I actually have a special interest in Venice and its long relationship with the Byzantine and subsequent Turkish empires, that section was a joy to read. My only critique would be that I found Crivano the least fully-realized character in some ways. It may have something to do with age of the character vs age of the author. For example we understand the young Stanley better than the old Stanley (whom of course we barely meet).
slow-paced
Very well written and descriptive but the ending did not tie things up for as I’d hoped after getting through 580 pages
What a remarkable book! I don't know why it took me so long to read it, or maybe I do know and it has nothing to do with the book, but in any event I want to reread it some time soon to get a more cohesive experience of it.
