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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley.
I really love Yann Martel. I'm always happy when I read his books, even if I don't love them, because I always love his writing style. It's lush and humourous and beautiful. But, to be clear, this isn't one of his books that I don't love.
For some reason I was bracing myself to be disappointed with this book, but I wasn't. It's broken into three stories that click together, and all three are poignant and absurd. There's a lot of humour in the first story - Martel's descriptions of a poor man learning to drive a stick shift only a few hours before his 10 day journey and only a few years after the invention of the car made me smile until it wasn't funny anymore. There's a lot of what seem to be opposites - funny and serious, happy and sad, science and religion, hope and reality - but they do blend together so well!
So happy to have read this book. I will likely read it again one day!
I really love Yann Martel. I'm always happy when I read his books, even if I don't love them, because I always love his writing style. It's lush and humourous and beautiful. But, to be clear, this isn't one of his books that I don't love.
For some reason I was bracing myself to be disappointed with this book, but I wasn't. It's broken into three stories that click together, and all three are poignant and absurd. There's a lot of humour in the first story - Martel's descriptions of a poor man learning to drive a stick shift only a few hours before his 10 day journey and only a few years after the invention of the car made me smile until it wasn't funny anymore. There's a lot of what seem to be opposites - funny and serious, happy and sad, science and religion, hope and reality - but they do blend together so well!
So happy to have read this book. I will likely read it again one day!
I got really obsessed with what book I wanted to bring in 2016 with. I got so caught up in it that I was reading several books for several reasons and am 80% through [b:Lord Jim|12194|Lord Jim|Joseph Conrad|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372366969s/12194.jpg|2578988], [b:Love in the Time of Cholera|9712|Love in the Time of Cholera|Gabriel García Márquez|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327124987s/9712.jpg|3285349], and [b:The Night Stages|23209962|The Night Stages|Jane Urquhart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413131311s/23209962.jpg|42753066], all chosen for different reasons, only to have this be the latest I started and first I finished. Though I didn't love it, it's perhaps appropriate. Bringing in 2016 with a book released in 2016 (or, rather, a book that will be released, as I've got an ARC). What this book represents for me is my multiple motivations: I'm in a new city and am going to a pub book swap to meet new folks, I learned that we can take these ARCs from my soon-to-be-former place of work, the idea of bringing something no one else has to my first book swap with this group is ridiculously appealing to me, and I can't on principle swap a book I haven't read and can't talk about. You could achieve a pretty accurate analysis of me based on what I've disclosed here.
Tone-wise, story-wise, and writing-wise this isn't the book that rings in my new year, as I felt pretty ambivalent about most of it. I liked the shadow of the Iberian rhinoceros (and knew where that was going), I liked the reverend's cross, I liked most everything to do with the Golden Boy, but I thought the walking-backwards-in-grief was too much and it put me off the entire first part. It was hard to stay interested, and it was only brutal determination that kept me going. The second part was better and more interesting, though, like the Iberian rhinoceros, there was no mystery about the wife (in a chapter about mystery). The third part was a further improvement and I liked the co-habitation with the chimpanzee, though I would've liked to be surprised by the ending.
Tone-wise, story-wise, and writing-wise this isn't the book that rings in my new year, as I felt pretty ambivalent about most of it. I liked the shadow of the Iberian rhinoceros (and knew where that was going), I liked the reverend's cross, I liked most everything to do with the Golden Boy, but I thought the walking-backwards-in-grief was too much and it put me off the entire first part. It was hard to stay interested, and it was only brutal determination that kept me going. The second part was better and more interesting, though, like the Iberian rhinoceros, there was no mystery about the wife (in a chapter about mystery). The third part was a further improvement and I liked the co-habitation with the chimpanzee, though I would've liked to be surprised by the ending.
This book was such a nice challenge. I loved the connections between the three parts of the book. Totally caught me off guard. I didn't quite understand the book totally, but it was still incredible.
I don't really know how to rate this book. I enjoyed reading it. I never lost interest, loved all the characters, enjoyed the stories and the quirkiness. But I don't understand it. Maybe that's okay. Maybe I'll have to reread it again someday.