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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
I read it for book club. I didn't like it. I won't read again. I can't pinpoint why I didn't like it..it was kooky but usually I like that...I dunno
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'm usually not sure how I feel about a Rushdie book until the last chapter. This one did not disappoint. It was weird and sometimes confusing, but also beautiful and somehow very relevant to or current political climate.
I had to DNF this book. I got through most of it before I had to return it to the library, but I didn't care enough about it to keep reading it. It reads too much like a history text. Show, don't tell.
I appreciate this book more for the ideas and the content than the actual plot or characters. To some extent, this novel is for a learned audience. It contains so many references and allusions to canonical Western art pieces. The whole novel is arguably framed around Goya's "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters," which appears in the beginning of the book. Sometimes the story lulled me to sleep, and it's hard to have any empathy for any of the characters, but I was mostly drawn in by the lyrical writing, the ideas, and the allusions to art. I can appreciate the novel for the story as a whole and the greater concepts of reason vs. religion, and the exploration of human nature and the origins of bigotry. These ideas seem especially relevant considering the current state of the political world.
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Mooi boek en vooral heel mooi geschreven, maar voor mij persoonlijk net iets te filosofisch.
“At the beginning of all love there is a private treaty each of the lovers make with himself or herself, an agreement to set aside what is wrong with the other for the sake of what is right. Love is spring after winter. It comes to heal life's wounds, inflicted by the unloving cold. When that warmth is born in the heart the imperfections of the beloved are as nothing, less than nothing, and the secret treaty with oneself is easy to sign. The voice of doubt is stilled. Later, when love fades, the secret treaty looks like folly, but if so, it's a necessary folly, born of lovers' belief in beauty, which is to say, in the possibility of the impossible thing, true love.”
4.5