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A review by sfletcher26
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
5.0
I read Captain Correlli's Mandolin a couple of years ago. It wasn't a book I would ordinarily have read but I'd read good reviews of it and wanted to read out of my comfort zone so gave it a go. It was amazing and I loved it. Shortly afterwards I got a copy of Birds Without Wings and its been languishing on my TBR pile ever since because I couldn't get into it. It felt so very different to CCM that I just couldn't seem to find a way into it.
In an attempt to break the deadlock though I nominated this as a book to read in my book club. Some would say that this is a recipe for disaster as if I can't get into it how will others in the group find it (more on that later).
This time reading the book was in some ways no easier. The first few pages dragged by and I was beginning to wonder whether I would finish it. I pushed on though because its a book club pick and I always read a book club pick. And boy am I glad I did.
As I hinted above this wasn't what I expected it to be in any way. Having read CCM I expected it to be more like that, but it wasn't it was so much more. I found that it was more like a biography of a town and the people who live there and how their lives interact. It was an interconnected collection of vignettes that I found I needed to like a collection of short stories; one at a time with a slight break between each part. Therefore it's taken me a very long time to read, pretty much a month.
Normally I would have hated a book that took this long to read but not this one, I loved it and it ended up breaking my heart and making it soar at the same time. A genuinely amazing book that I would give 6 stars to if I could.
Book club addendum
We are a small group (just 4 of us).
2 read it and really enjoyed it
1 was still reading and was finding it hard work
1 abandoned
In an attempt to break the deadlock though I nominated this as a book to read in my book club. Some would say that this is a recipe for disaster as if I can't get into it how will others in the group find it (more on that later).
This time reading the book was in some ways no easier. The first few pages dragged by and I was beginning to wonder whether I would finish it. I pushed on though because its a book club pick and I always read a book club pick. And boy am I glad I did.
As I hinted above this wasn't what I expected it to be in any way. Having read CCM I expected it to be more like that, but it wasn't it was so much more. I found that it was more like a biography of a town and the people who live there and how their lives interact. It was an interconnected collection of vignettes that I found I needed to like a collection of short stories; one at a time with a slight break between each part. Therefore it's taken me a very long time to read, pretty much a month.
Normally I would have hated a book that took this long to read but not this one, I loved it and it ended up breaking my heart and making it soar at the same time. A genuinely amazing book that I would give 6 stars to if I could.
Book club addendum
We are a small group (just 4 of us).
2 read it and really enjoyed it
1 was still reading and was finding it hard work
1 abandoned