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pja_gsh's review against another edition
2.0
I was elated to pick up this book from a second hand bookstore since I'd left if off on the second page back in high school. I loved 'all you also sleep tonight' because it was all soul through and through and by the time this book was written, there wasn't any of that left in the writer. I read a little above 100 pages and it was tedious. The story seems to go nowhere-nothing ever happens. There's a lot of dialogue but most of it meanders. I feel I'm watching someone's life pass by-the narrator is rather dull. I couldn't stay rooted to it.
ianmcnamara's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this book. The musical element was really special in this story. If i were not reading this book for a book club i probably would never have done so and would have missed out on a lovely story.
res81278's review against another edition
4.0
This book was pretty good. I liked the characters although was really sad about the end. The music references were good. And I really liked Seth's writing style.
fionab_16's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
admatthews's review against another edition
4.0
This was tricky. A Suitable Boy is one of my top three novels in history, so expectations were always going to be slightly disappointed. For a while I thought it was going horribly wrong - I ended up taking against the narrator. But in the end it came together, and Seth's ability to craft an exhilarating climax without anything flash or obvious happening won through.
gitanita's review
3.0
Michael Holmes is a violin player living in London and playing in a Quartet made of his friends, but not quite. He is in a sort of, but not quite (again!) relationship with his 16 years younger violin student from France. He is a profoundly unhappy person, who can't get over the one woman that got away (or that he let go). Since the day they said goodbye due to his depression, he unsuccessfully tried to find her, but she didn't want to be found. Then one day she reappears in his life and both will try desperately to have what they had in the past, but will find out that sometimes you just can't go back, no matter how much you try.
I seem to instinctively choose books that are too depressing and end up not enjoying them, because they are too depressing. The story had some interesting parts, but did not wow me. I happen to love music (both classic and modern), but the love the characters felt for music did not get to me. I also wasn't in love with the protagonists, Michael and Julia, or at least I wasn't cheering them on in their second attempt at love. There was too much hurt and resentment between them and also new people who did not deserve to be hurt in the process.
I seem to instinctively choose books that are too depressing and end up not enjoying them, because they are too depressing. The story had some interesting parts, but did not wow me. I happen to love music (both classic and modern), but the love the characters felt for music did not get to me. I also wasn't in love with the protagonists, Michael and Julia, or at least I wasn't cheering them on in their second attempt at love. There was too much hurt and resentment between them and also new people who did not deserve to be hurt in the process.
alexsiddall's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully evokes the London life of a melancholy musician. As a lover of string quartets, who knows some of the locations, likes good writing, and is a nostalgic old sentimentalist, this was just the book for me. Loved everything about it.
aaairm's review against another edition
5.0
I had forgotten what a great book this was till I reread it this weekend! Great love story that is ultimately doomed - a love that endures the passage of time to the point it refuses to let go and ends up merely grasping at shadows of the past.
samaira's review against another edition
4.0
this is what feels right. It's a combination of the prose and the story for me but I think mostly the prose.
dommdy's review against another edition
3.25
I like the quality of the writing but dislike most of the characters, particularly Michael, the protagonist. He has no ability to regulate his emotions and if he weren’t so overbearing he wouldn’t have been able to seduce his first love, Julia into a painful reenactment of their original doomed relationship. He was the one who ruined it the first time. The relationship does have the all consuming quality of first love, the myopic inability to see that the attraction was almost exclusively sexual, except for the shared love of music. Julia, who was married with a child, in my opinion, fell again with Michael as he so forcefully desired her.
The best parts of the story were about the music and the musicians, the functional and dysfunctional ways they worked together and shared their visions of what the music is and should be. I believe Michael’s love for his violin was equal to his love for Julia. This book is worth reading, my rating would be higher if Michael had been a better person.
The best parts of the story were about the music and the musicians, the functional and dysfunctional ways they worked together and shared their visions of what the music is and should be. I believe Michael’s love for his violin was equal to his love for Julia. This book is worth reading, my rating would be higher if Michael had been a better person.