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huffmaneric's review
funny
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
daydreamer45's review against another edition
3.0
Не останах особено впечатлена. Микеланджело ката личност, както е описан тук, не ми допада. Но ми беше интересно описанието на живота в Истанбул през 1506г.
Много бегло споменавани на еничарите, исках по-подробно обяснение, от османска гледна точка.
Мезихи беше интересен, донякъде...
Горката маймунка. :(
I probably won't pick it up again soon.
Много бегло споменавани на еничарите, исках по-подробно обяснение, от османска гледна точка.
Мезихи беше интересен, донякъде...
Горката маймунка. :(
I probably won't pick it up again soon.
skywalkyrie's review against another edition
1.0
je n'ai pas particulièrement aimé ce livre
Il y a des moments extrêmement poétiques, où la prose m'a fait retenir mon souffle parce que c'est BEAU mais la majorité du temps j'ai eu une sensation de collages de moments raconté de façon très factuelle et dénuée de profondeur du coup j'ai eu du mal à me plonger complètement dans l'histoire.
Il y a des moments extrêmement poétiques, où la prose m'a fait retenir mon souffle parce que c'est BEAU mais la majorité du temps j'ai eu une sensation de collages de moments raconté de façon très factuelle et dénuée de profondeur du coup j'ai eu du mal à me plonger complètement dans l'histoire.
teorogers29's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
_dunno_'s review against another edition
4.0
Dragă Goodreads,
Pentru anul viitor îți doresc să implementezi odată sistemul ăla cu jumătate de stea. Milioane de oameni îți vor fi mulțumitori.
Altfel, cartea: captivantă, scurtă, istorică. Intrigi, pasiune, poeți, artiști, bătălii, regi și elefanți.
3.5*
Pentru anul viitor îți doresc să implementezi odată sistemul ăla cu jumătate de stea. Milioane de oameni îți vor fi mulțumitori.
Altfel, cartea: captivantă, scurtă, istorică. Intrigi, pasiune, poeți, artiști, bătălii, regi și elefanți.
3.5*
stef369's review against another edition
4.0
Wie "Boussole" van Enard gelezen heeft, zal goed weten wat het favoriet thema is van deze erudiete auteur: de "brug" van het Westen naar het Oosten... In deze kleine roman wordt Michelangelo door de sultan van Turkije gevraagd om een brug te bouwen in Constantinopel, begin 16de eeuw. De brug moet het Islamistisch deel van de stad verbinden met het deel waar nog veel christenen en joden wonen, ze heeft dus ook een zeer symbolische betekenis (en zeker voor de auteur dus...). Maar de bekende kunstenaar, die intussen een soort "star" is in de kunstwereld, raakt verstrikt in verschillende intriges... Een mooie roman, knap verteld, een beetje geheimzinnig en suggestief (Enard schrijft nooit eenvoudig...). Deze auteur is sinds "Boussole" een beetje herontdekt...
leasaurusrex's review against another edition
3.0
La jolie histoire de Michel-Ange à Istanbul, entre faits réels et inventés.
Une plume agréable, certains passages vraiment beaux, emprunts de poésie et d'une douce amertume.
Je regrette cependant un livre très court, qui ne va pas vraiment au fond des choses. On effleure à peine, alors que j'aurais aimé en connaître plus de ce grand homme. Ce n'est peut-être pas le livre le plus adapté pour ça.
Une lecture agréable mais sans plus.
Une plume agréable, certains passages vraiment beaux, emprunts de poésie et d'une douce amertume.
Je regrette cependant un livre très court, qui ne va pas vraiment au fond des choses. On effleure à peine, alors que j'aurais aimé en connaître plus de ce grand homme. Ce n'est peut-être pas le livre le plus adapté pour ça.
Une lecture agréable mais sans plus.
sebastianmihail's review against another edition
5.0
“Gloata se cucereşte dacă-i vorbeşti despre bătălii, regi, elefanţi şi fiinţe fantastice; despre fericirea ce va veni după moarte, dacă-i vorbeşti despre lumina vie ce le-a păzit naşterea, despre îngerii care roiesc în jurul lor, despre demonii care-i ameninţă şi despre iubire, iubire, această promisiune a uitării şi a îndestulării. Vorbeşte-le despre toate acestea, şi te vor iubi; vor face din tine egalul unui zeu.”
Superbă carte!
Superbă carte!
bookly_reads's review
5.0
`How many works of art will there have to be to put beauty in the world?` he thinks as he watches the guests get drunk.
I never thought I'd find another book like Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue, but this is it. Sudden Death's companion, curiously, takes place within the same century. In Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, he discusses the seeming impossibility of writing a novel that lives up to the promise of its beginning.* George Saunders, in a recent interview, said, "I think most [writers] have the dream of writing the perfect story in which the reader just likes us from the beginning and stays with us. But I don’t think that’s really art." He said (and I don't even disagree with him) that books repel us and then draw us in again; that the golden beginning cannot be the whole of the thing.
But!! Then you get books so perfect that they read like single poems. Because poems, unlike books, can uphold that promise of every line being as good as the first. In Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, every line is golden and poetic, from its title to its closing sentence.
Of course, it refuses traditional chapter breaks and narration styles. Just as in Sudden Death (the books are really so similar!), the text jumps from being deep in the head of Michelangelo to assuming what might be the voice of the author, considering Michelangelo as a distant historical figure. The poet Misihi has his thoughts heard, and the thoughts of an unnamed dancer are directed at Michelangelo and spill out onto the page in second person.
Maybe, then, the book is beautiful because it is full of small beginnings. And yet it manages a much more straightforward narrative than Sudden Death (not that that is either good or bad) and overall felt like a novel. A treasured little gemstone of a novel.
*'The dog Snoopy is sitting at a typewriter, and in the cartoon you read the sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night. . . . ." Every time I sit down here I read, "it was a dark and stormy night . . ." and the impersonality of the incipit seems to open the passage from one world to the other, from the time and space of here and now to the time and space of the written word; I feel the thrill of a beginning that can be followed by multiple developments, inexhaustibly; I am convinced there is nothing better than a conventional opening, an attack from which you can expect everything and nothing; and I realize also that this mythomane dog will never succeed in adding to that first seven words another seven or another twelve without breaking the spell. The facility of the entrance into another world is an illusion: you start writing in a rush, anticipating the happiness of a future reading, and the void yawns on the white page.' -Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
I never thought I'd find another book like Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue, but this is it. Sudden Death's companion, curiously, takes place within the same century. In Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, he discusses the seeming impossibility of writing a novel that lives up to the promise of its beginning.* George Saunders, in a recent interview, said, "I think most [writers] have the dream of writing the perfect story in which the reader just likes us from the beginning and stays with us. But I don’t think that’s really art." He said (and I don't even disagree with him) that books repel us and then draw us in again; that the golden beginning cannot be the whole of the thing.
But!! Then you get books so perfect that they read like single poems. Because poems, unlike books, can uphold that promise of every line being as good as the first. In Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, every line is golden and poetic, from its title to its closing sentence.
Of course, it refuses traditional chapter breaks and narration styles. Just as in Sudden Death (the books are really so similar!), the text jumps from being deep in the head of Michelangelo to assuming what might be the voice of the author, considering Michelangelo as a distant historical figure. The poet Misihi has his thoughts heard, and the thoughts of an unnamed dancer are directed at Michelangelo and spill out onto the page in second person.
Maybe, then, the book is beautiful because it is full of small beginnings. And yet it manages a much more straightforward narrative than Sudden Death (not that that is either good or bad) and overall felt like a novel. A treasured little gemstone of a novel.
*'The dog Snoopy is sitting at a typewriter, and in the cartoon you read the sentence, "It was a dark and stormy night. . . . ." Every time I sit down here I read, "it was a dark and stormy night . . ." and the impersonality of the incipit seems to open the passage from one world to the other, from the time and space of here and now to the time and space of the written word; I feel the thrill of a beginning that can be followed by multiple developments, inexhaustibly; I am convinced there is nothing better than a conventional opening, an attack from which you can expect everything and nothing; and I realize also that this mythomane dog will never succeed in adding to that first seven words another seven or another twelve without breaking the spell. The facility of the entrance into another world is an illusion: you start writing in a rush, anticipating the happiness of a future reading, and the void yawns on the white page.' -Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver