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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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:
N/A
2.5 This is a tricky one because it took a bit of determination to get through the first (of three) novellas. As a resident of Portugal and being able to visualize various spots in Lisbon and the surrounding area, I still barely made it through. The other frustrating aspect is that I do not really feel those early exhaustive pages are really that worthwhile. Although, the later third of the book is about a 3.5 or even a 4. I would encourage people to skip the first 125 pages or so and read this following SPOILER which is really all you will miss: A man loses his wife and child and in response looks for healing via a road trip throughout the mountainous highlands of Portugal c. 1905 ish. While driving, he runs over a small boy and leaves his body. That pretty much sums up the very long initial 125 pages, now enjoy the remaining parts of the book because it really is a good read.
I don't understand why this book gets so much hate in the reviews. So I tried to sum up the points mentioned in the top reviews.
This isn't a real novel. It's three random stories stacked together.
Umm... it is? The three stories are strongly linked together, even though they have their independent narratives.
I am bored to death by the description of how a car works.
This passage in the first part of the book conveys how Tomás is getting used to the automobile. What's wrong with that? It is used to add depth and shape the character and his weird adventure. Nobody would criticise Tolkien for elaborately describing landscapes.
I have no idea what this book is about.
Who cares? Tell me in one sentence: What is The Bible about? What is Pulp Fiction about? What is Spacee Odyssey about? What is Ulysses about? Who the hell cares?
This isn't a real novel. It's three random stories stacked together.
Umm... it is? The three stories are strongly linked together, even though they have their independent narratives.
I am bored to death by the description of how a car works.
This passage in the first part of the book conveys how Tomás is getting used to the automobile. What's wrong with that? It is used to add depth and shape the character and his weird adventure. Nobody would criticise Tolkien for elaborately describing landscapes.
I have no idea what this book is about.
Who cares? Tell me in one sentence: What is The Bible about? What is Pulp Fiction about? What is Spacee Odyssey about? What is Ulysses about? Who the hell cares?
I hate to say it, I really do, but this book was so mind-numbingly boring that I felt exhausted just looking at the front cover.
It started with 130 pages of describing the inner workings of an early automobile. Not a single detail left out. But it’s okay, because the main character is quirky and walks backwards. Oh never mind, that’s never really explored and actually is mentioned only a few times before Martel goes back into writing what is essentially a car manual. URGH
It started with 130 pages of describing the inner workings of an early automobile. Not a single detail left out. But it’s okay, because the main character is quirky and walks backwards. Oh never mind, that’s never really explored and actually is mentioned only a few times before Martel goes back into writing what is essentially a car manual. URGH
I'm sure a great deal of the metaphysical, symbolic, and metaphorical stuff went right over my head, but I can say that this was a very strange, experimental, and beautiful story that somehow had me sobbing by the end.
A few thoughts:
-The first part could be cut down upon--too much automobile description and people gawking at automobiles; we get the point without that much of it.
-I do love that Yann Martel has included a touch of Canadian and immigrant in there--it's so ridiculously rare in mainstream fiction, and like all aspects of the modern life (Peter's son's life, for example), it was spot on and rang very true.
- It'll have you weeping, but without being stormily angsty--it's simpler and more subtle.
- Maria's lecture on Agatha Christie and Jesus was a bit much for me, but I do get the feeling that it was about more than just parallels between Agatha Christie and the Bible, so I probably just missed the point there.
- Walking backwards. My god. So many tears. For that matter, all of those passing references. Having it set in three time periods with loose threads connecting to the previous segments was a stroke of genius.
Definitely one for the reread.
A few thoughts:
-The first part could be cut down upon--too much automobile description and people gawking at automobiles; we get the point without that much of it.
-I do love that Yann Martel has included a touch of Canadian and immigrant in there--it's so ridiculously rare in mainstream fiction, and like all aspects of the modern life (Peter's son's life, for example), it was spot on and rang very true.
- It'll have you weeping, but without being stormily angsty--it's simpler and more subtle.
- Maria's lecture on Agatha Christie and Jesus was a bit much for me, but I do get the feeling that it was about more than just parallels between Agatha Christie and the Bible, so I probably just missed the point there.
- Walking backwards. My god. So many tears. For that matter, all of those passing references. Having it set in three time periods with loose threads connecting to the previous segments was a stroke of genius.
Definitely one for the reread.
I wanted to like this book, but I kept getting thrown out of it by some of the overly descriptive prose, and the premise was...not as interesting at the end as I had hoped.
Sure, he can write, but I'm afraid the point of this eluded me.
This was pretty good, though not *super* great. It would be a good book club pick for discussion potential--it leaves you with questions for sure. I was really jazzed about until part 3 when it kind of fell apart for me.
So if you're going to write parallel stories, and in one of them a seventeenth-century priest discovers the humanity of African slaves, and in the other a modern white man discovers the soul of a chimpanzee... well, I was going to say "you gotta be really careful", but I'm going to amend that to "for the love of God, just don't".