Scan barcode
al27caro's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I'm glad I read King Solomon's Carpet but I didn't like any of the characters. All were dishonest.
clotalksbooks's review against another edition
Found it hard to follow, could be not suited to audio for me. It was just very odd. May finish at some other point but not now.
vic_the_postie's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
donnasarahward's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
If you have ever been in any underground system then you know the mystery. Okay, maybe it lacks the history of London’s – for instance, my city’s underground system(s) has never been used as a bomb shelter - , but it has many similarities – “lost” stops, a schedule only a psychic can figure out, a what is that smell feel, an in comprehensible map.
You get the idea
King Solomon’s Carpet is book where the subway system plays an important part. In fact, it’s the central character. Don’t let the blurb on the back cover fool into thinking otherwise. The star of the show is neither Alice nor her lovers. It’s not Tina and the kids. It’s not Jarvis.
It’s the UNDERGROUND!
It’s the threatening nature of the Underground, any underground really, that makes the book work. It makes all users equal, and it has its own rules that you don’t really know until after a while.
And then I’m sure that SEPTA (my local public transit) is using its underground to call forth the dreaded Schuylkill River Monster!
Go ahead, laugh at me, but when Philly is taken over by the hideous monster, flooding the tunnels, ringing the Liberty and making me head of the library system, we’ll see whose laughing at whom then, won’t we? Especially when we take over the cheese steak market!
Seriously, no Philly Cheese steak is authentic unless you got it in Philly.
Seriously, though, the Underground and mood are the stars of the novel. It is curiosity and familiarity that compels the reader to finish the book. Not Rendell’s best work, but not bed.
You get the idea
King Solomon’s Carpet is book where the subway system plays an important part. In fact, it’s the central character. Don’t let the blurb on the back cover fool into thinking otherwise. The star of the show is neither Alice nor her lovers. It’s not Tina and the kids. It’s not Jarvis.
It’s the UNDERGROUND!
It’s the threatening nature of the Underground, any underground really, that makes the book work. It makes all users equal, and it has its own rules that you don’t really know until after a while.
And then I’m sure that SEPTA (my local public transit) is using its underground to call forth the dreaded Schuylkill River Monster!
Go ahead, laugh at me, but when Philly is taken over by the hideous monster, flooding the tunnels, ringing the Liberty and making me head of the library system, we’ll see whose laughing at whom then, won’t we? Especially when we take over the cheese steak market!
Seriously, no Philly Cheese steak is authentic unless you got it in Philly.
Seriously, though, the Underground and mood are the stars of the novel. It is curiosity and familiarity that compels the reader to finish the book. Not Rendell’s best work, but not bed.
lara99's review
3.0
This book takes the reader on a weird, meandering nightmare of a journey through the eyes of a group of misfits living in a decrepit former school house in North London. Far creepier than the characters in A Fatal Inversion, here Vine gives us a loner who smells of rotting meat due to the hawk he dotes on, a violinist who has abandoned her husband and baby daughter, a narcissistic musician potentially brain damaged following a road accident, and the sinister Axel Jonas, who travels the tube leading a disfigured companion dressed as a bear, terrorising commuters. The common thread between them is Jarvis, the owner of the house, who is obsessed with and writing a book about the London Underground, excerpts of which are included in the novel. And that's it really. There's no plot to speak of. There is a dramatic denouement, but it took me two thirds of the book to figure out the connections that lead to it. Still, I enjoyed the characters and Vine's beautiful prose. It's a mystery to me that she was considered a genre writer - this book particularly (along with a Fatal Inversion) seem to me to be literary fiction which just happen to include elements of suspense.
raehink's review
3.0
Another winner from Vine. More of psychological profile than a traditional mystery. The setting is the London underground rail system.
More...