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A review by a_ab
The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan
4.0
3.5* - rounding up for the entertainment value and epistolary format.
I love epistolary books, and this was such a fun example. I really liked the wild adventures the main character initiated and the connections and friendships they created.
The snail mail letters are getting harder to sell in this digital world, so I appreciated that the author provided some explicit explanations for the outdated mode of correspondence within the letters themselves. Not that I found them plausible, though. It would have felt more natural if some of the correspondence occurred through email.
The whole set up made me think of the opportunities for later day discovery we are losing through sheer virtuality of most of our conversations and creative outputs. No physical trace left behind, and old servers are harder to crack open than dusty attics.
The connections felt too easy and bonds formed seemed too deep for the interactions described, but I did enjoy the fact that all of the characters had a unique recognizable voice and that nobody was either too perfect or too flawed. It's a great adventure book involving very ordinary people - I don't think I see enough of that in literature.
There are some minor flaws, some of them could be the fault of the translation, others are fundamental (structural or story flaws). But overall it was a very pleasant reading experience. Rereadable.
I love epistolary books, and this was such a fun example. I really liked the wild adventures the main character initiated and the connections and friendships they created.
The snail mail letters are getting harder to sell in this digital world, so I appreciated that the author provided some explicit explanations for the outdated mode of correspondence within the letters themselves. Not that I found them plausible, though. It would have felt more natural if some of the correspondence occurred through email.
The whole set up made me think of the opportunities for later day discovery we are losing through sheer virtuality of most of our conversations and creative outputs. No physical trace left behind, and old servers are harder to crack open than dusty attics.
The connections felt too easy and bonds formed seemed too deep for the interactions described, but I did enjoy the fact that all of the characters had a unique recognizable voice and that nobody was either too perfect or too flawed. It's a great adventure book involving very ordinary people - I don't think I see enough of that in literature.
There are some minor flaws, some of them could be the fault of the translation, others are fundamental (structural or story flaws). But overall it was a very pleasant reading experience. Rereadable.