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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't know what this book was about apart from the obvious - and the obvious story was boring. I think the author was trying to be very literary and subtle, but I found the dialogue very superficial and tedious and I found the relationships odd and unrealistic. Not worth readin in my opinion.
Understated and kind of melancholy. A woman leaves her husband and child to live in Spain, then falls in love again and studies painting, and returns to Ireland in her old age. I didn't really like or dislike it.
My third Toibin book and probably the most difficult to read when compared to Brooklyn and Nora Webster.
Katherine is a protestant woman from Ireland who escapes her unhappy marriage to live in Spain. It is the time of Franco and Catalonian forces battling for power and she arrives in Barcelona, Catalonian Spain looking for a place to be herself. She takes up painting and mixes with the artistic community and forms a relationship with Miguel as well as an Irish man called Micheal. Miguel has an interesting past which becomes clear when they move to the mountains. The story progresses through relationships, love, death...
I didn't particularly warm to the characters. They just seemed spoilt, uncaring, and too locked into being artistic. Although this is his first novel I wouldn't start here. Brooklyn is a much easier option.
Katherine is a protestant woman from Ireland who escapes her unhappy marriage to live in Spain. It is the time of Franco and Catalonian forces battling for power and she arrives in Barcelona, Catalonian Spain looking for a place to be herself. She takes up painting and mixes with the artistic community and forms a relationship with Miguel as well as an Irish man called Micheal. Miguel has an interesting past which becomes clear when they move to the mountains. The story progresses through relationships, love, death...
I didn't particularly warm to the characters. They just seemed spoilt, uncaring, and too locked into being artistic. Although this is his first novel I wouldn't start here. Brooklyn is a much easier option.
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Romantic, picturesque and telling. I feel as thought this novel found me and the right place and time.
I failed to see the point in writing this book. It's not particularly plot driven, nor is it descriptive or insightful. It wasn't awful, it was just boring and bland, which in a sense is worse than terrible writing.
Following this Irishwoman’s journey of finding her place, I still feel like I don’t know her. This technique seems to work at first but with a whole story filled with her life while only bits and pieces of information about her are told, the novel feels incomplete. Nevertheless, a promising debut.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Police brutality, Car accident, Abandonment
Minor: War
Read Brooklyn recently and LOVED it. This one, not as much.
While I loved the characters in Brooklyn, I found it difficult to like any of the characters in this. Katherine seemed very narcissistic and none of the other characters were much better.
Maybe because they were all artists and all had the "woe is me" attitude, but I found them not nearly as interesting as those in Brooklyn.
While I loved the characters in Brooklyn, I found it difficult to like any of the characters in this. Katherine seemed very narcissistic and none of the other characters were much better.
Maybe because they were all artists and all had the "woe is me" attitude, but I found them not nearly as interesting as those in Brooklyn.