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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-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
The thing that stands out to me the most in this book is not its plot, or its characters, or its setting or its politics or even its alleged humour. If someone were to stop me on the street and ask me about No Word From Gurb, beyond the basic description of alien loses his alien buddy in ‘90s Barcelona, shenanigans ensue, I would immediately say: this book is my ADHD’s worst nightmare.
While I do appreciate different writing styles and believe that experimentation is a great way to find your unique voice as a writer, as well as what speaks to you as a reader, I find this book so incredibly difficult to read. Actually, the reading itself did not take long. I read it in four short sittings, roughly fifty pages each time. My comprehension of it, however… This really isn’t so much a flaw of the book or its author as it is an issue of complete incompatibility. Whoever the target audience of this book is, it most definitely is not me. And that’s okay.
A few things probably contributed to my inability to connect with it. The first is the reason I mentioned above, which is, it is just so hard to stay focused while reading it. The book jumps around and is not always completely coherent, especially when the narrator is not sober, which happens more than once. From one sentence to the next you can find yourself in a completely new setting and situation and it’s never completely clear how. While I understand that is kind of the whole point, for a person who struggles with attention, this is the literary equivalent of kryptonite. This writing style prevented me from getting immersed in the story, and felt like it was distracting me on purpose, so while I did read it, I’m afraid I actually retained very little information, because I was so focused on focusing I forgot to pay attention to the story. Kind of like if the book had “you are now aware of your own breathing!” at the end of every paragraph. This also made it difficult for me to connect to the story emotionally, which is usually the make it or break it for me in terms of really liking a book. To this I will also add, that as a non-native English speaker, reading a book this confusing is a challenge as I was constantly convinced I missed or misunderstood something due to the language, which sometimes happens. So then I had to go back a few paragraphs and break my focus, again. Are you sensing a pattern?
As for not being the target audience, there is also the issue that I have never been to Barcelona. Or Spain at all, for that matter. I don’t even care about the Olympics. At all. I think this was the main reason many of the jokes in the book just didn’t land for me. On more than one occasion, I didn’t even realise something was meant to be a joke until it was pointed out as one. I completely lack context for the entire setting of the book, which made it hard to recognise the line between what is real and what I am supposed to laugh at for being absurd. How should I know? A few things (people the narrator turned into, for example) I googled, but again, that’s distracting, which brings me right back to my first point.
All in all, I am hesitant to judge this book. Who am I to determine if it’s good or bad, funny or unfunny, when I so obviously am not the person it set out to entertain?
Genialidad surrealista de Eduardo Mendoza. Los churros y Marta Sánchez no volverán a ser lo mismo XDD
Un libro divertido sin más pretensiones que hacer pasar un buen rato. ¡Al fin un libro de Eduardo Mendoza que me gusta!
funny
lighthearted
fast-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:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
En el club de lectura de brillibrilli organizado por la Vecina Rubia propusieron el libro Sin noticias de Gurb, como libro para reír. Después de leerlo recordé porque durante años no me gustaba ir a ver monólogos en directo, el humor es algo muy privado y diferente para todos.
La reseña completa aquí.
https://www.lasletrasdealba.es/sin-noticias-de-gurb/
La reseña completa aquí.
https://www.lasletrasdealba.es/sin-noticias-de-gurb/
Entretenido pero su trama no es especialmente buena.
funny