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A review by deecreatenola
The Pages by Hugo Hamilton
1.0
This was a community read for patrons of the #strongsenseofplace podcast and we'll have a book discussion in a couple of weeks. I love when a book is dropped into my lap from outside of my orbit. Unfortunately this one did not land for me.
The story is told by a book, Rebellion by Joseph Roth. This copy of the book was saved from book burning by the Nazis and has returned to its homeland with the granddaughter of the man who saved it.
It's a charming device to have a book tell its own story. Unfortunately the carry through of that device is uneven at best. There are things that book knows that it couldn't possibly get from its surroundings. It's clearly omniscient and can take it more than it experiences.
It tells not only its present story and not only its past story but also the story of its author. It's too many stories for one book to tell. It often gets confusing as to which story we were in.
The central story - of Lena traveling to Germany with the book to figure out the story behind the map written into the back pages of the book - is compelling enough, but the book was not always the best storyteller. There are long sections of the novel where the book is describing these long, very thorough conversations that Lena has with her friend Julia that is about a conversation she had with Armin and often about what Armin told her about his sister Malina. Such third hand reporting is first of all not authentic. We just don't have conversations where we give monologues reiterating conversations about third parties. And it's extremely distancing besides.
The end gets almost exciting, but by that point there have been so many different threads that I just didn't care. I didn't really like any of the characters and was not invested in their troubles.
Side note: the author discussed male vs female points of view - and interestingly, I felt this story was told from a very male POV!
The story is told by a book, Rebellion by Joseph Roth. This copy of the book was saved from book burning by the Nazis and has returned to its homeland with the granddaughter of the man who saved it.
It's a charming device to have a book tell its own story. Unfortunately the carry through of that device is uneven at best. There are things that book knows that it couldn't possibly get from its surroundings. It's clearly omniscient and can take it more than it experiences.
It tells not only its present story and not only its past story but also the story of its author. It's too many stories for one book to tell. It often gets confusing as to which story we were in.
The central story - of Lena traveling to Germany with the book to figure out the story behind the map written into the back pages of the book - is compelling enough, but the book was not always the best storyteller. There are long sections of the novel where the book is describing these long, very thorough conversations that Lena has with her friend Julia that is about a conversation she had with Armin and often about what Armin told her about his sister Malina. Such third hand reporting is first of all not authentic. We just don't have conversations where we give monologues reiterating conversations about third parties. And it's extremely distancing besides.
The end gets almost exciting, but by that point there have been so many different threads that I just didn't care. I didn't really like any of the characters and was not invested in their troubles.
Side note: the author discussed male vs female points of view - and interestingly, I felt this story was told from a very male POV!