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adamjensen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
meganha19's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mrsmozdog's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
hannahballard's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
hattdulac's review
4.0
Would like to give this a 3.5 if possible, but I think it’s deserving of 4 stars as it was decent for most of the book, though I feel like it lost itself in the last hundred or so pages.
beq3's review against another edition
2.0
Such a disappointment. I really enjoyed the first section and indeed bought it on the strenght of the sample chapters.
Hiroko seemed a very compelling character and I was very interested in a book on the bomb in Nagasaki and its aftermath. However once Hiroko marries Sajjad and ends up in Pakistan the novel just tried to do far too much and does not dive into any of it sufficiently to give it a resonant reality for the reader. The focus drifts from Hiroko. By the time we got to Raza it had all become very dreary and predictable without any insight or commentary being offered into either the political/religious changes, or how Hiroko actually managed to make a relationship with a traditional Indian Muslim man work never mind in the midst of a fiercely conservative emerging theocracy. It's all v opaque and it makes it hard then to understand motivations. Bombshells are dropped and never explored. For example SPOILER
Raza is rejected by his girlfriend as she tells him the whole community regard him as defective and un-marriageable as his mother was exposed to radiation and he might also be damaged. There is no further mention of this. It does not become any kind of theme or line of narrative that gets resolved. It's there to justify Raza's view of himself as an outsider, but books are better when they demonstrate rather than tell.
Harry was an interesting opportunity to demonstrate how American foreign policy drifted away from its ideals (or did it ever have any) as embodied in one of its actors, but that didn't entirely come to fruition either.
I read the first 40% happily enough, By 70% it was really dragging and by 83% I flipped to the end and put the thing down. Just awful. Too much happening and I really feel the author just lacked the skill to draw it all together. It needed either a great story or capable insight into the impact of massive political and social events. It had neither. DNR
Hiroko seemed a very compelling character and I was very interested in a book on the bomb in Nagasaki and its aftermath. However once Hiroko marries Sajjad and ends up in Pakistan the novel just tried to do far too much and does not dive into any of it sufficiently to give it a resonant reality for the reader. The focus drifts from Hiroko. By the time we got to Raza it had all become very dreary and predictable without any insight or commentary being offered into either the political/religious changes, or how Hiroko actually managed to make a relationship with a traditional Indian Muslim man work never mind in the midst of a fiercely conservative emerging theocracy. It's all v opaque and it makes it hard then to understand motivations. Bombshells are dropped and never explored. For example SPOILER
Raza is rejected by his girlfriend as she tells him the whole community regard him as defective and un-marriageable as his mother was exposed to radiation and he might also be damaged. There is no further mention of this. It does not become any kind of theme or line of narrative that gets resolved. It's there to justify Raza's view of himself as an outsider, but books are better when they demonstrate rather than tell.
Harry was an interesting opportunity to demonstrate how American foreign policy drifted away from its ideals (or did it ever have any) as embodied in one of its actors, but that didn't entirely come to fruition either.
I read the first 40% happily enough, By 70% it was really dragging and by 83% I flipped to the end and put the thing down. Just awful. Too much happening and I really feel the author just lacked the skill to draw it all together. It needed either a great story or capable insight into the impact of massive political and social events. It had neither. DNR
rosiethereader2024's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
andream0885's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0