Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sashaknits 's review for:
The Hippopotamus
by Stephen Fry
I bought this on a whim in a charity shop a while back as I've enjoyed one of Stephen Fry's novels before ([b:Making History|317457|Making History|Stephen Fry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355932489s/317457.jpg|1384]) and took it on holiday to California this month so I'd have a paperback rather than my Kindle to take to the pool or the beach.
It's a curious novel which starts in a meandering fashion following a washed up, middle-aged poet who has just been fired from his only reliable work as a theatre critic. After randomly bumping into his goddaughter who he hasn't seen since she was a baby, he gets drawn into the lives of old friends and a strange mystery happening at their country estate.
I won't give too much away as the nature of the mystery itself is part of the book's charm, but I will caution that it's not for the easily offended! It was however a very suitable summer holiday read for me, with a style that switched between prose that kept the pages turning and letters written between the protagonist and his goddaughter.
There seems to be a significant amount of Stephen Fry's own character littered through many of the principle cast and I enjoyed reading it with his voice in my head. I think overall it's a 3.5 but rounded up generously to 4 stars.
It's a curious novel which starts in a meandering fashion following a washed up, middle-aged poet who has just been fired from his only reliable work as a theatre critic. After randomly bumping into his goddaughter who he hasn't seen since she was a baby, he gets drawn into the lives of old friends and a strange mystery happening at their country estate.
I won't give too much away as the nature of the mystery itself is part of the book's charm, but I will caution that it's not for the easily offended! It was however a very suitable summer holiday read for me, with a style that switched between prose that kept the pages turning and letters written between the protagonist and his goddaughter.
There seems to be a significant amount of Stephen Fry's own character littered through many of the principle cast and I enjoyed reading it with his voice in my head. I think overall it's a 3.5 but rounded up generously to 4 stars.