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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Oh my. I had forgotten what an incredible book this is, and also how dreadful it is when you find out the why of the story.
Amazing. A well-written tome (it's over 800 pages) that will keep you guessing what the full story is until the very end.
I am listening to the audiobook and at disc 11 I am giving up. The novel is quite tedious, action is slow to accrue (in banking terms) and frankly, throughout the book I have felt that the author is full of himself. I love it when writers integrate their research seamlessly into the plot and I just hate it when I feel like I have just sat through a lecture. I have been a fan of Ayn Rand since high school, but you can pretty much skip the 50+ pages in each of her novels where she goes on ad infinitum about Objectivism.
I just listened to the part of the book where Pears describes a character in one of Emile Zola's novels, Nana, and coincidentally, I am also currently reading Zola's book La Bete Humaine. Does the reader need a comparison of Nana to the Countess/Elizabeth? Heck no, the plot would have moved along just fine without it. Yes, Mr. Pears, I get that you did your research into 19th Century literature (which is probably where you got all your references to the life of the salons), yet do you need to go on and on and on with the details? Certainment pas! And although I enjoy my daily dose of The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, do I want pages and pages of descriptions of the bond market in France when I read a novel? You can guess my answer.
Okay, I admit that after 11 discs I want to know how it ends (but not enough to slug through 8 more)...so I just inserted the last 2 discs and I am done. Maybe I would have preferred reading the book rather than the audio version, that way I could have skipped all the monotonous details. I have enjoyed other historical novels which give a good romp through the 19th Century, but they were written by more able writers: Austen, Bronte, Eliot, Dickens, Shelley and contemporary writers such as Carr, Follet, Brooks, Harris.
I just listened to the part of the book where Pears describes a character in one of Emile Zola's novels, Nana, and coincidentally, I am also currently reading Zola's book La Bete Humaine. Does the reader need a comparison of Nana to the Countess/Elizabeth? Heck no, the plot would have moved along just fine without it. Yes, Mr. Pears, I get that you did your research into 19th Century literature (which is probably where you got all your references to the life of the salons), yet do you need to go on and on and on with the details? Certainment pas! And although I enjoy my daily dose of The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, do I want pages and pages of descriptions of the bond market in France when I read a novel? You can guess my answer.
Okay, I admit that after 11 discs I want to know how it ends (but not enough to slug through 8 more)...so I just inserted the last 2 discs and I am done. Maybe I would have preferred reading the book rather than the audio version, that way I could have skipped all the monotonous details. I have enjoyed other historical novels which give a good romp through the 19th Century, but they were written by more able writers: Austen, Bronte, Eliot, Dickens, Shelley and contemporary writers such as Carr, Follet, Brooks, Harris.
This was almost a very good book. It is an intricate character study neatly twined with a gripping mystery, but the ending, just the later few pages really, is utterly utterly stupid. It's as if he couldn't come up with something good enough as a reveal so instead just shoved in the most ludicrously melodramatic thing he could think of. The first five hundred eighty pages are quite interesting though.
Read 366 pages but I've decided to DNF this as it just didn't grab my attention or was that enjoyable to read.
On the threshold between 3 and 4 stars - was good company for the summer. It performs a witty critique of the financial games that are set up between governments and private organisations. In the end, you have to laugh with the author's imagination: μικρος που ειναι ο κοσμος!!!
It’s no Instance of the Fingerpost (nothing ever will be) but it’s pretty entertaining. I do have a bone to pick: Pears wonders in the afterword why 19th century writers never wrote about banking. Because it’s BORING, Iain. Boring then and boring now. Apart from the banking, enjoyable enough, though I’d rather have followed JS Sargent (who gets the quickest of nods) around late-19th century Venice than this boring banker guy.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Similar to Instance of the Fingerpost, fantastic mystery with multiple perspectives, complex and satisfying