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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
I checked out the audiobook read by John Lee to listen to in a long car ride. Since I was with a few others, I thought this would be a fun story for a multi-gender and multigenerational audience. It was. I attribute a lot of the enjoyment to the reader John Lee. He did a phenomenal job reading for each character presented in the story. Given the detail of Robinson's accounts, there were certainly times I would drift in and out of the recollections. I don't know if I would have kept interested if not for John Lee's expressions and the historical significance of this novel.
The content of the book wasn't modern by any means. It was written 300 years ago, after all. There is plenty that you shake your head out, twitch your lip, and grimace at. It is offensive in many ways. Our main character is a bigoted, self-righteous, Mary-Sue character. Despite any and all of his misfortunes, he manages to come out well ahead because he somehow had skill sets and luck to survive it. His egotistical viewpoint enslaves Friday and somehow Friday, the captain, and others bow down before him with little reserve.
There are many historical inaccuracies and the human reactions hardly seem realistic. As a novel, you can separate this from reality. Unfortunately, I am sure it created more bias by passing on false information at the time of original publishing when Daniel Defoe credited Robinson Crusoe as the author making it appear as if an autobiography rather than a piece of fiction.
Despite, I appreciate having had John Lee record this book. I don't think I would have gotten through this story had I read it on my own. I would easily give his work a 5/5. This novel I would give 2/5 for my modern viewpoint.
The content of the book wasn't modern by any means. It was written 300 years ago, after all. There is plenty that you shake your head out, twitch your lip, and grimace at. It is offensive in many ways. Our main character is a bigoted, self-righteous, Mary-Sue character. Despite any and all of his misfortunes, he manages to come out well ahead because he somehow had skill sets and luck to survive it. His egotistical viewpoint enslaves Friday and somehow Friday, the captain, and others bow down before him with little reserve.
There are many historical inaccuracies and the human reactions hardly seem realistic. As a novel, you can separate this from reality. Unfortunately, I am sure it created more bias by passing on false information at the time of original publishing when Daniel Defoe credited Robinson Crusoe as the author making it appear as if an autobiography rather than a piece of fiction.
Despite, I appreciate having had John Lee record this book. I don't think I would have gotten through this story had I read it on my own. I would easily give his work a 5/5. This novel I would give 2/5 for my modern viewpoint.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
This book was just painful, painful, painful for me to read.
La storia in generale la conoscono tutti.
Il problema è che il messaggio “meglio stare ancorato alle radici, allontanarsi dal nido porta solo sventure” poteva andar bene nel ‘700, oggi sembra una presa in giro.
Il problema è che il messaggio “meglio stare ancorato alle radici, allontanarsi dal nido porta solo sventure” poteva andar bene nel ‘700, oggi sembra una presa in giro.
The book really does not have much of a story arc, but still, I don't think that it's a bad story. There is quite a bit of racism and ethnocentrism in the book, but I feel that it is wrong to judge 18th century racist views against those of the 21st century. It all has to be taken in context of the time.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
The narrative is overall more interesting than I had expected (having known mostly nothing about it before I started other than "some guy gets shipwrecked for a long time"), and the artifacts of the time in which it was written are at turns fascinating (the author is apparently horrified by how "the Spanish" went about colonizing the new world) and horrifying (rampant casual racism). I'm glad I read it, and I did find it enjoyable, but I think it's a bit of a slog for most modern tastes.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
“Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”
——————-
I really tried to give this book a chance, but I disliked it so much I knew if I didn’t power through I’d be stuck on it until the year ended and that would be such an annoying way to miss my goal.
The main character gives up wealth, safety, and security for frivolous pursuits in a way only someone who has never known true challenge can. I felt like the writing was just so overdone and almost intentionally difficult to follow out of some weird classist gatekeeping. That might be my projection.
The whole leaving a plantation to find more slaves was just gross. I could barely follow the plot and skimmed a good portion of this text.
I’ve seen Castaway and I feel like it’s an insult to Tom Hanks to remind people it was somewhat inspired by this book. Maybe the only redeeming quality is how beautiful does clothbound edition is and that it’ll look really nice on my shelf. Absolutely not the book for me.
——————-
I really tried to give this book a chance, but I disliked it so much I knew if I didn’t power through I’d be stuck on it until the year ended and that would be such an annoying way to miss my goal.
The main character gives up wealth, safety, and security for frivolous pursuits in a way only someone who has never known true challenge can. I felt like the writing was just so overdone and almost intentionally difficult to follow out of some weird classist gatekeeping. That might be my projection.
The whole leaving a plantation to find more slaves was just gross. I could barely follow the plot and skimmed a good portion of this text.
I’ve seen Castaway and I feel like it’s an insult to Tom Hanks to remind people it was somewhat inspired by this book. Maybe the only redeeming quality is how beautiful does clothbound edition is and that it’ll look really nice on my shelf. Absolutely not the book for me.