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A review by maddelleine
The Flea Palace by Elif Shafak
3.0
In The Flea Palace we, as readers, are transformed into curious observers getting the chance to peek at the lives of the people living in Bonbon Palace - just enough to make an idea of what's going on at a certain point in time, before moving on to the next apartment and the next set of characters. As we keep observing, we, at times, get surprised by some turn in perspective, by characters' confessions or little secrets.
Though with a promising start, the action seems to lack depth somewhat (maybe after The 40 Rules of Love, Honour or Black Milk the expectations were different) - I kept being left wanting to see more, to learn more about characters (it might have its certain charm as well, but this style doesn't particularly agree with me).
The ending somewhat explains the general tone of the book - its lackadaisical style comes straight from the character narrating the story and is even better explained by the character's situation (no, I'm not spoiling by giving out names) - yet the ending is somewhat abrupt and it leaves things... well, unended; the character simply got bored of continuing the story and leaves things as it is. The metaphors explored in the novel could also have been more developed, rather than just briefly presented.
Though with a promising start, the action seems to lack depth somewhat (maybe after The 40 Rules of Love, Honour or Black Milk the expectations were different) - I kept being left wanting to see more, to learn more about characters (it might have its certain charm as well, but this style doesn't particularly agree with me).
The ending somewhat explains the general tone of the book - its lackadaisical style comes straight from the character narrating the story and is even better explained by the character's situation (no, I'm not spoiling by giving out names) - yet the ending is somewhat abrupt and it leaves things... well, unended; the character simply got bored of continuing the story and leaves things as it is. The metaphors explored in the novel could also have been more developed, rather than just briefly presented.