Scan barcode
booksndnovels's review against another edition
2.0
روايه كانت ممله بالدرجه الأولى اسوأ ما قرأت لإليف
saba_ts's review
2.0
I love Elif Shafak's books but this was not up to par with her other writings. It was boring and dull and felt a bit over the place and baseless. A bit disappointed.
limonik's review against another edition
4.0
The story follows the residents of an apartment block in Istanbul as they try to stop the rubbish smell caused by people dumping their garbage in front of the building. There are very colourful yet not so deep characters. Each chapter is dedicated to another flat and its resident/s. I appreciate Shafak’s ability and talent to use her prose and to create beautiful sentences. However, I do not like Shafak the person because she tends to jump on every bandwagon, tries to put every idea that comes to her mind into her stories. She did not do these in this book. So I enjoyed it more than the others. This is her best work I have read so far. I will continue reading her other and earlier works.
ilona_rae's review
3.25
The stories of an apartment building's tenants, mostly migrants, was an interesting microcosm of Istanbul. I appreciated some of the symbols and concepts more after reading about Sufism. You can see the different connections and alienation between the people and values. But ultimately I struggled to care about or remember so many characters.
maleouch's review
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
bookstoresurfer's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
No doubt the book had some quirks but I was just not the right reader for this one.
invisiblemonster's review against another edition
4.0
It has an alluring quality I can’t deny and the unique characters and their stories are just too good to not enjoy on some level. So it doesn’t really mean much when I say it isn’t Shafak’s best work.
jannie_mtl's review against another edition
4.0
This novel is set in the Bonbon Palace, an aging apartment building in Istanbul. Chapters, some very brief, are headed with the flat number and name of the occupant(s), and we learn of their backstories and their current situations. The residents are also obsessed with a foul smell in the building, assumed to be from the garbage that is continuously being dumped by the garden wall. One resident's creative solution leads to the climax of the novel.
This is the first work I've read by Shafak, prompted by travel to Istanbul, but it will not be my last. Her characters are well-crafted, with strengths and flaws, and as the threads of their lives are woven together, we come to a sympathetic understanding of their difficulties
This is the first work I've read by Shafak, prompted by travel to Istanbul, but it will not be my last. Her characters are well-crafted, with strengths and flaws, and as the threads of their lives are woven together, we come to a sympathetic understanding of their difficulties
deea_bks's review against another edition
3.0
Nice beginning and nice ending! The long-gone past and the past stories are nicely written and there is a lot of humor in them. However, I failed to be convinced by the characters residing the Bonbon Palace: although their presentation seemed interesting at first, it then transformed in a too long, unfocused wanna-be novel with a very far-fetched story. I was bored with the stories, I was bored with the long descriptions of bugs and garbage and I didn't like the characters.
The quality of the style is the same as in all Shafak's books I read before: the writing is catchy and intertwined with witticisms (which compensates for some of the mentionned shortcomings) and this is why I don't give the book a lower rating. However, I found the book disappointing and compared to "The Bastard of Istanbul" quite a joke. An interesting exercise of writing in itself through the form that Shafak constructed, this book failed to impress me half as much at least as "The Bastard...".
The quality of the style is the same as in all Shafak's books I read before: the writing is catchy and intertwined with witticisms (which compensates for some of the mentionned shortcomings) and this is why I don't give the book a lower rating. However, I found the book disappointing and compared to "The Bastard of Istanbul" quite a joke. An interesting exercise of writing in itself through the form that Shafak constructed, this book failed to impress me half as much at least as "The Bastard...".
booksandflowers's review against another edition
4.0
The story follows the residents of an apartment block in Istanbul as they try to stop the rubbish smell caused by people dumping their garbage in front of the building. There are very colourful yet not so deep characters. Each chapter is dedicated to another flat and its resident/s. I appreciate Shafak’s ability and talent to use her prose and to create beautiful sentences. However, I do not like Shafak the person because she tends to jump on every bandwagon, tries to put every idea that comes to her mind into her stories. She did not do these in this book. So I enjoyed it more than the others. This is her best work I have read so far. I will continue reading her other and earlier works.