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jesslolsen's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the structure of this story.
I feel unfair giving it only 3 stars, there was nothing “wrong” with it at all, I just didn’t finish wanting more from it.
The ending was sad but i thought it was fitting
I feel unfair giving it only 3 stars, there was nothing “wrong” with it at all, I just didn’t finish wanting more from it.
The ending was sad but i thought it was fitting
fleurdevie's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
cathybruce208's review against another edition
1.0
I admit that I only got through about half of this book. The author had some interesting insights into middle age and life, but nothing actually happened. The guy just went to visit the girl, listened to her lie to him, and saved up money to pay to sleep with her, (which he says he could never do.) It might get more interesting in the second half, but I couldn't hang in there.
essjay1's review against another edition
1.0
I should stop reading books by this author ... people recommend them and I think I should try because he is so popular. This one is pretty much his stock standard formula that he more or less recreates every time: man meets woman, waits too long or does something stupid, man loses woman. He writes about lost love, and unrequited love, and it clearly strikes a chord with people. I am sure fans of the author will love the book, but I just kept waiting for something to happen other than the obvious. As a side, the book gives us a concise history of the former Yugoslavia, and some wry observations of England in the late 70's.
leslielu67's review against another edition
3.0
Expected more, after being blown away by The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Still good, but much shorter and concise.
gjmaupin's review against another edition
4.0
Kind of a historical novella, in its way, isn't it? I enjoy de Bernieres a lot, though he's usually more in the"sprawling and immersive" line.
margaret21's review against another edition
4.0
This is a story of two ordinary lives, that are, of course, extraordinary. Chris is a bored travelling salesman, living with a wife he no longer loves. Roza is Serbian who's found herself living in London. These two meet, and over the course of time, Roza tells Chris her story. Or does she? How much is fact? How much is a product of her imagination? Is she really someone who's slept with her best friend, her father, dropped out of university, lived as a prostitute? We become as fascinated by her as Chris is. This is a story of missed opportunities, of lives turning out differently because of decisions made, or not made, and the ending leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
This is a story about story-telling.
This is a story about story-telling.
sadiereadsagain's review against another edition
3.0
To begin with, I wasn’t sure why owned this book, or if I was liking it. And that feeling didn’t really shift as I was listening to it, not until the end, which I felt was very satisfying and saved how I felt about the whole thing.
This book is basically structured around the visits that bland, middle-aged travelling salesman Christian makes to a woman, Roza, in the dilapidated shared house she lives in. He meets Roza one night in the 1970’s as he’s trying to pick up his first ever prostitute. She is not a prostitute (though unbeknownst to Christian she was pretending to be one to alleviate a night of boredom). To apologise for his blunder, he offers her a lift home. This is the spark of an odd relationship where he visits her frequently, and she tells him her life story. An illegal immigrant from what was Yugoslavia, Roza’s stories are provoking, sad and often questionable in terms of their truth component. But Chris laps them up, in an emotional affair he justifies by snivelling about his wife.
This is described as a love story, but I’d give strong side-eye to anyone who thinks this is romantic. Both are using the other for their own reasons, and the conclusion of the story is very telling about Christian’s core values. Roza is a fascinating character and I really enjoyed the majority of her story (save for the inclusion of incest – trigger warning for that). Christian, however, is a whiney, self-involved drip of a man, who has fooled himself into thinking he’s compassionate and sensitive about this woman. If he had drove away in his shit-brown Allegra in the first few pages and left us alone with Roza, oh what a book that would have been. But although the world doesn’t need the perspective of men like Christian, it does need for them to have a mirror held up to themselves, and I think this book does that. Perhaps too subtly for my taste – so subtle, in fact, that I do wonder if that was the author’s intention at all – but enough to make me glad that I hadn’t wasted my time in reading.
This book is basically structured around the visits that bland, middle-aged travelling salesman Christian makes to a woman, Roza, in the dilapidated shared house she lives in. He meets Roza one night in the 1970’s as he’s trying to pick up his first ever prostitute. She is not a prostitute (though unbeknownst to Christian she was pretending to be one to alleviate a night of boredom). To apologise for his blunder, he offers her a lift home. This is the spark of an odd relationship where he visits her frequently, and she tells him her life story. An illegal immigrant from what was Yugoslavia, Roza’s stories are provoking, sad and often questionable in terms of their truth component. But Chris laps them up, in an emotional affair he justifies by snivelling about his wife.
This is described as a love story, but I’d give strong side-eye to anyone who thinks this is romantic. Both are using the other for their own reasons, and the conclusion of the story is very telling about Christian’s core values. Roza is a fascinating character and I really enjoyed the majority of her story (save for the inclusion of incest – trigger warning for that). Christian, however, is a whiney, self-involved drip of a man, who has fooled himself into thinking he’s compassionate and sensitive about this woman. If he had drove away in his shit-brown Allegra in the first few pages and left us alone with Roza, oh what a book that would have been. But although the world doesn’t need the perspective of men like Christian, it does need for them to have a mirror held up to themselves, and I think this book does that. Perhaps too subtly for my taste – so subtle, in fact, that I do wonder if that was the author’s intention at all – but enough to make me glad that I hadn’t wasted my time in reading.
feriha's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75