A review by a_chickletz
Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon

2.0

It's hard to really give this book a proper review. Mainly because it's a mixture of 'fiction' and 'truth'. I wanted to read this book because for many years, growing up with the musical, I yearned to know how much was taken from the book. I also wished to know the truth.

The truth of the matter (ha!) is: this book wasn't all that great.

Margaret Landon is not a very good writer; the book is sloppily formatted at times it doesn't know if it's trying to be a biography or if it's trying to be fiction. It can be both, but the writing in some chapters was such a - pardon - clusterfuck that I couldn't bear to read any more.

The best chapters had to be about the Siamese that would come to Anna with their stories of peril. It was then the fictional prose seemed to shine and all the more so I became intrigued.

Being that my copy was abridged I question if reading the unabridged version would be any better.

There are many events and 'quotes' that were taken from the story and adapted into the musical. It's nice to see them.

All in all, this book was a bit of a mess. I'll be looking into reading the actual books by Anna Leonowens.