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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
This was an at times jarring mix of beautiful adventure and horror sequence. I found I liked it less and less as the book went on, though it was still a magnificent book. In the end, not altogether my favorite, but I had to give it a pretty high rating because the parts that I loved were the kind of truly captivating story telling that sticks with you.
I had no idea what the middle section of this book was going to be about. Jeeeesus it was a hard slog. I appreciate this was the feeling the writer wanted to create but it very nearly made me give up. Jaf was so lovely though, I wanted to know if he got home safe.
10/8/11: I've never changed my opinion of a book in the course of reading it as many times as I did with this one--and then ended up loving it so much. Starting with a charming encounter between a small boy and a tiger, and ending with that boy as a mature man, the novel moves through many lives and experiences, highs and lows, dull stretches and crises. As I was reading, I kept thinking, okay, this part is a little slow, or contrived, or out of place; and what the heck was THAT all about? But the impact of this story is brilliantly cumulative, and the last 50 pages bring it all together awfully, sadly, beautifully, quietly.
Jaffy Brown has lived through something few of us have ever even had to consider, and he becomes, after all, a wonderful and most human human being. All the pieces and people and strings of his life experience, which seemed so random and unconnected as they happened, come together, though not in a contrived way, just in that he is that person who lived through all of it, and he is a fully realized and understandable person. And there is so much to learn about human nature in understanding him.
Birch's writing is sturdy--sometimes lovely, but also sometimes a bit strained--so getting through this novel does require some patience. I think it's worth it, though. But I'd love to hear what others think. On the one hand, the novel is unremarkable--but on the other, it keeps coming back to haunt me. Which means it's good, I think!
Jaffy Brown has lived through something few of us have ever even had to consider, and he becomes, after all, a wonderful and most human human being. All the pieces and people and strings of his life experience, which seemed so random and unconnected as they happened, come together, though not in a contrived way, just in that he is that person who lived through all of it, and he is a fully realized and understandable person. And there is so much to learn about human nature in understanding him.
Birch's writing is sturdy--sometimes lovely, but also sometimes a bit strained--so getting through this novel does require some patience. I think it's worth it, though. But I'd love to hear what others think. On the one hand, the novel is unremarkable--but on the other, it keeps coming back to haunt me. Which means it's good, I think!
Starts with great promise, with a walk through the noise and exoticism of 19th Century London. As the book progresses it becomes ever slower and darker, a descent into tedious horror - and harder to read because of it.
Not a bad book, just not something I'd be keen to read through again in a hurry.
Not a bad book, just not something I'd be keen to read through again in a hurry.
Well, I’m nearly done with the booker shortlist, only one more book after this one. I must say that this has been my favourite book on this list. The story had me gripped from page one and kept me within its clutches right until the end. Its structure, beginning in the characters childhood, makes you really get to know the characters and therefore makes you care about what happens to them in later life. It makes you even more heart broken when things do not go their way. I don’t think that this will win but I am hoping that it does. It deserves it.
I was expecting a fun adventure, almost a kids book if you will. Not sure why I thought this! Though it started out very much that way it ended somewhere very dark and sad and frightening. I really don't want to give anything away but just want to say that this book has a bit of everything to offer, from friendship to heartbreak to survival, and is a beautifully written adventure, of sorts, but for kids it is not!
Good historical fiction novel. Slow pace at times, but overall pretty engaging and interesting if not life-changing.
The most vivid and visceral book I have read in some time. A remarkable evocation of Victorian London life on the docks and of life at sea. Birch makes you experience Jaffy Brown's life with at times a nauseating intensity.
Link to blog: http://genteelarsenal.blogspot.com/2012/01/jamrachs-menagerie-by-carol-birch-most.html
Link to blog: http://genteelarsenal.blogspot.com/2012/01/jamrachs-menagerie-by-carol-birch-most.html