Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
2016 is a difficult year for those of us who follow news. Lots of violence. High Dive is about a different kind of violence, bomb set by the IRA in a hotel in Brighton, mid80s, Margaret Thatcher. What doesn't change over the decades is innocent lives lost. High Dive is a novel that fills in some of the stories. Very good book, slow reading, dreaded the ending.
Overall didn’t care for it so much—but this author is a genius at capturing moment by moment. Beautiful descriptions of each trail of thought, each gesture in an interaction. Several of them characters like to people watch and make up back stories for the people they see. I bet this author is very good at that game.
“On days when ambition and regret got the better of him, when lost opportunities stuck to his shoes like bubble gum gone to ground and created ugly slouching strings that halted progress...”
“On days when ambition and regret got the better of him, when lost opportunities stuck to his shoes like bubble gum gone to ground and created ugly slouching strings that halted progress...”
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Great read. In fairness, though, I have to admit that my enjoyment of this book was pleasantly colored by a general fondness for books set in hotels and the also the fact that I've spent some time at the Grand Hotel in Brighton with family both as a child and as an adult, so you know, fond memories.
"I'm not going to sleep with you," she repeated.
"Sure," he said. "Right."
It had been a very exciting development. Here was a woman, a beautiful woman, a new woman who didn't know the ins and outs of his every mistake, and she was thinking about not sleeping with him.
High Dive by Jonathan Lee is a fictional account of the 1984 IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, which was targeted at Margaret Thatcher. It follows the lives of three people; Moose, the acting hotel manager, his daughter, Freya, working at the hotel through the summer as she decides what to do with her life, and Dan, a young IRA member finally given an important task.
This is the kind of novel I love - there's a clear sense of time and place, with the mid-eighties being especially well rendered, and the characters are complex and compelling. The framing device of the bombing is almost beside the point, although it does ratchet up the tension of the final chapters considerably.
"Sure," he said. "Right."
It had been a very exciting development. Here was a woman, a beautiful woman, a new woman who didn't know the ins and outs of his every mistake, and she was thinking about not sleeping with him.
High Dive by Jonathan Lee is a fictional account of the 1984 IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, which was targeted at Margaret Thatcher. It follows the lives of three people; Moose, the acting hotel manager, his daughter, Freya, working at the hotel through the summer as she decides what to do with her life, and Dan, a young IRA member finally given an important task.
This is the kind of novel I love - there's a clear sense of time and place, with the mid-eighties being especially well rendered, and the characters are complex and compelling. The framing device of the bombing is almost beside the point, although it does ratchet up the tension of the final chapters considerably.
Really wasn't sure what I was going to get with this one, as I was unfamiliar with the events depicted in the book. It's set around a real life event from 1984 when a bomb was planted at the hotel where Margaret Thatcher was staying. I was afraid it was going to be a grim serious novel with lots of history but instead I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a bit lighter while still giving a solid historical context. The main focus is with Dan, a young IRA member; Moose, a hotel manager; and Freya, Moose's teenage daughter. Really liked the authors style - full of wit and humor.
At its best, there’s a touch of Hitchcock to this tense, controlled drama based on a real-life IRA plot to assassinate Maggie Thatcher at a seaside hotel in Brighton. Follows not just the Irish bombers (there’s a truly scary prologue), but also the working class Brits—a hotel manager, his aimless daughter, cooks, bellhops, maids—who are collateral damage to both sides. The author is a bit too clever for his own good & the whole affair can feel stagey at times. But as a thriller, it breaks the genre mold.
I was never so uninterested in a set of characters and an unexploded bomb. I had to drag myself through this one.
I liked the different point of views and the humor in this book. All of the characters seemed so real and down to earth. Although you know what is going to happen, you are intrigued to find out. Ultimately the terrorism leaves so many lives destroyed including the terrorists.
Literary fiction set in England and Ireland about the true-life bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984. Follows the bomber, the assistant hotel manager and the manager's teenage daughter, who works at the hotel's front desk. The characters are fictional, and I found the writing literary and compelling, but I ultimately didn't love this book.