Reviews

The Girl with the Leica by Helena Janeczek

angeladobre's review against another edition

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3.0

2,75
https://booknation.ro/recenzie-fata-cu-leica-de-helena-janeczek/

ali2444's review against another edition

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5.0

Irriverente, sfrontata, senza paura, il romanzo racconta la "biondina di Brunete" attraverso i ricordi di tre amici intimi Willy, Ruth e Georg. I ricordi risalgono a Lipsia, prima di dover fuggire dal nazismo crescente e rifugiarsi a Parigi, le difficoltà economiche nella capitale francese degli anni Trenta, i rapporti con André, da lei ribattezzato Robert Capa, il lavoro di fotoreporter nella guerra civile spagnola.
Essendo, appunto, un romanzo che si basa su ricordi, non ci si deve aspettare che il racconto scorra fluido seguendo la cronologia; resta comunque ben comprensibile, caratterizza la ragazza coraggiosa, che conquista anche il lettore e fa venir voglia di saperne di più, di informarsi, di conoscerla meglio.

kiperoo's review

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3.0

I really wanted to love this but found the timelines and points of view confusing. I'm really looking forward to reading the Gerda Taro biography on which it was based!

kduhy's review

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informative sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

I was really looking forward to finding out about the girl with the Leica but found this book rather repetitive at times and quite mixed up. The author uses imagined testimonials from a friend and two of Gerda’s lovers however, would have liked to hear Gerda’s voice. 

akemichan's review against another edition

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3.0

Mi sono stupita di vedere una valutazione così bassa per questo libro.
Ora, credo che la motivazione sia la discrepanza tra quello che il libro effettivamente è e quello che è stato sponsorizzato.
In effetti, non è né una biografia di Gerda Taro né un romanzo storico con lei protagonista. Se dovessi cercare di definirlo con una metafora, lo trovo quasi un quadro impressionista: la figura di Gerda emerge dai ricordi non cronologici e non sequenziali di tre persone che l'hanno conosciuta. La sua figura emerge, quindi, sebbene non come protagonista, ma sempre con contorni sfumati, mai chiari, tanto che il lettore non ha mai la certezza di aver colto la totalità di quello che Gerda era, mentre sono i tre personaggi che la raccontano a essere più definiti nel loro presente.
Io personalmente l'ho apprezzata come scelta narrativa; tuttavia, devo riconoscere che alla fine sembra rimanere quasi più un esercizio di stile, la cui sostanza un po' si perde nella totalità delle immagini che vuole evocare.

chiara_everywhere's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

cynthiak's review against another edition

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Quelle déception !!! Style ennuyeux à mourir, le récit part dans tous les sens, les dialogues sont du niveau d'un soap opera, bref, un gouffre d'ennui.

arunendro's review

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informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

great ending

sssnoo's review

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2.0

I can give this author the benefit of the doubt and say the translation was the issue. Or that the literary value was way beyond my appreciation level. But I did not enjoy this read. I finished it t because it is for a Book club I love but I had to force myself to read 50-60 pp/day like it was a dreaded school assignment. To me it was like a shitty first draft that needed serious support during and revision so the reader could follow what was going on.

In truth, there was some interest in exploring the political left that demonstrated the most opposition to the rising fascist governments in 1930’s Europe. Ironic that those groups, largely communist, were the groups vilified post war. So that was interesting. And occasionally there was a paragraph I could follow easily and more rarely a page or two, but mostly I struggled just to connect the dots of the narrative. Reading should not be this hard.

My book club meets tomorrow and perhaps I will be enlightened by others as to why I should appreciate this book more. I kind of doubt it though.

agnesealstrian's review against another edition

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adventurous informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0