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A review by jove64
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
3.0
I enjoyed reading this book but there was something off about it. There is no real plot, but that's not really the main issue. I think it's that the whole thing is emotionally very flat. The sections are not really connected (except by a shared character between the first section and the third). The only connecting theme seems to me to be one of feeling like you don't really belong. But there is no emotional depth to it.
This is weird because the whole first section is about a love affair. One with a kind of problematic premise given that there is a very significant age difference and a very significant difference in status within a shared industry (publishing). I guess I was hoping that as it developed I would have some reason to abandon my political misgivings because of the obvious love. But no, the statements of love felt like statements with no real grounding in emotion.
The return to the older male character in the final section confirms all my initial misgivings about that relationship and his character. It is redeemed by being a very engaging and well written genre piece, though I suspect it's a polished version of a character study exercise. (The format would certainly make a good character study exercise.)
The middle section seems completely unconnected (which probably explains the title of the book) but is fascinating in itself. CW for immigration detention though the experience described seems atypical and possibly misleading, though I have no personal experience. At the very least it seems improbably that on any night at Heathrow there would only be 2 or 3 people in immigration detention while things were "cleared up". I'd like a more developed story of this character, but probably written by someone else. [b:Hotel Arcadia|25016210|Hotel Arcadia|Sunny Singh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1424862252l/25016210._SY75_.jpg|44689120] may have spoiled me for how this kind of thing could be written.
I give it 3 stars because I did actually want to finish it. It was well written. The text was engaging enough to finish even if it was sometimes hard to motivate myself to pick it back up again. It was well enough written that I hoped it would gain some emotional depth which increased my disappointment at the ending. (Personally, if I think somethings only worth 1 or 2 stars I wouldn't have finished it.) YMMV
This is weird because the whole first section is about a love affair. One with a kind of problematic premise given that there is a very significant age difference and a very significant difference in status within a shared industry (publishing). I guess I was hoping that as it developed I would have some reason to abandon my political misgivings because of the obvious love. But no, the statements of love felt like statements with no real grounding in emotion.
The return to the older male character in the final section confirms all my initial misgivings about that relationship and his character. It is redeemed by being a very engaging and well written genre piece, though I suspect it's a polished version of a character study exercise. (The format would certainly make a good character study exercise.)
The middle section seems completely unconnected (which probably explains the title of the book) but is fascinating in itself. CW for immigration detention though the experience described seems atypical and possibly misleading, though I have no personal experience. At the very least it seems improbably that on any night at Heathrow there would only be 2 or 3 people in immigration detention while things were "cleared up". I'd like a more developed story of this character, but probably written by someone else. [b:Hotel Arcadia|25016210|Hotel Arcadia|Sunny Singh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1424862252l/25016210._SY75_.jpg|44689120] may have spoiled me for how this kind of thing could be written.
I give it 3 stars because I did actually want to finish it. It was well written. The text was engaging enough to finish even if it was sometimes hard to motivate myself to pick it back up again. It was well enough written that I hoped it would gain some emotional depth which increased my disappointment at the ending. (Personally, if I think somethings only worth 1 or 2 stars I wouldn't have finished it.) YMMV