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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
Devastating.
I thought it was a beautiful book, but sad from the start.
I thought it was a beautiful book, but sad from the start.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Best read backwards
I enjoyed this book, and while I have always found Anita Shreve's writing style beautiful and poetic, I found myself skipping whole paragraphs this time. This story just seemed to have a lot of superfluous descriptive writing. Like a character would be walking somewhere and it would take two pages of buildings, flowers or sky descriptions before he could get there. That said, the ending... so many other reviews either really LOVED or really HATED the end. I have to say I was annoyed at first, because I, for only a second at one point while reading, wondered if it would end in this manner. But I decided there was no way it could. Then it did. The hints to the ending were there, very subtle, but it was still quite jarring and somewhat disappointing because I was invested in both characters.
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:
Complicated
This book was recommended to me and I had such a hard time getting into the story until about page 150! After that, I was more interested and the only reason why I continued reading was because I was told the last few pages would throw me for a loop! However, knowing this tid bit, I pretty much knew the end of the story well before it ended. I picked up the pieces when then letters were being written back and forth. THis is only the 2nd book I've read by Anita Shreve and she is a very differnt author than what I normally read, in her writing style. I do enjoy her stories because of the way they are written...makes you think a little bit!
I read this book after hearing Anita Shreve speak at Talking Volumes. The concept sounded interesting-- she wrote this because she was challenging herself to write a book backwards.
I did not like the book.
I did not like the book.
Spoiler-free review
I can't give a star rating to this novel because I have such strong conflicting feelings about it. As always, Shreve's writing is lucid and lovely. The section in Africa was amazing; having spent time in Africa it was a joy to return there in my imagination, aided by Shreve's magic prose.
But.
This isn't a spoiler because you know from the beginning that this beautiful romance is about two married people cheating. They come across as such massive narcissists. Thomas even harbours obsessive jealousy towards Linda's husband, and as for the way he treats his poor wife, it's disgusting. Meanwhile, I guess we're not supposed to care what happens to the black characters (the only ones I actually did care about).
I know most readers focus on the shocking ending, either loving it or hating it, but for me it seemed almost irrelevant — so out of the blue that I couldn't really accept it and it didn't make a difference to how I thought of the book. I guess you might feel that Thomas's cruel behaviour is more forgivable once you know more about him, but I didn't. If anything, I hated him more.
The funny thing is that I still want to read Shreve's books (apart from The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water because I don't need that much sadness in my life). Part of the reason is that the crazy weird plots mean I never know what's going to happen, but also, I just love her writing so much. One star and five stars.
I can't give a star rating to this novel because I have such strong conflicting feelings about it. As always, Shreve's writing is lucid and lovely. The section in Africa was amazing; having spent time in Africa it was a joy to return there in my imagination, aided by Shreve's magic prose.
But.
This isn't a spoiler because you know from the beginning that this beautiful romance is about two married people cheating. They come across as such massive narcissists. Thomas even harbours obsessive jealousy towards Linda's husband, and as for the way he treats his poor wife, it's disgusting. Meanwhile, I guess we're not supposed to care what happens to the black characters (the only ones I actually did care about).
I know most readers focus on the shocking ending, either loving it or hating it, but for me it seemed almost irrelevant — so out of the blue that I couldn't really accept it and it didn't make a difference to how I thought of the book. I guess you might feel that Thomas's cruel behaviour is more forgivable once you know more about him, but I didn't. If anything, I hated him more.
The funny thing is that I still want to read Shreve's books (apart from The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water because I don't need that much sadness in my life). Part of the reason is that the crazy weird plots mean I never know what's going to happen, but also, I just love her writing so much. One star and five stars.
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors and this is my favorite of all her books. When I got to the end, I found myself flipping through the book looking for "clues" that I missed. Read this book when you've got a few hours to kill, so you can finish it in one sitting.