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A review by andrew_j_r
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
3.0
How to sum up The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel...
Firstly, I have not seen the film, so I had no expectations based on that, although the edition that I own is the tie in with the movie.
There are a lot of characters, and they are introduced in a way that is not all that skill full. In fact three are so many that, once I was into the book, when a chapter that concentrated on one character ended and the next started, I would often have to think about who that was and what their backstory was.
All of the characters that end up in the hotel are introduced in the first part of the book, even though some do not end up there straight away, and again because you have not heard from them in a while you do have to think about who they are. In a way, I think the author has tried to cram too many characters into too few pages - at only 281 pages, this book could have been fifty percent longer and still seemed like quite a quick read.
The book has a melancholy feel to it. I do like the way that some of the characters are extremely memorable - it is hard not to like Norman, even though he is basically a dirty old man, and whilst some of the older characters are painted (I think deliberately) somewhat as stereotypes, once they get to India they all seem to come out of their shell.
So to sum up: the characters should have been introduced more gradually, the book needed to be longer, but at heart it tries to remind us that older people are basically younger people in older bodies - their age should not define them, though increasingly in our society it seems to do that.
So generally I liked it. I will now watch the movie!
Firstly, I have not seen the film, so I had no expectations based on that, although the edition that I own is the tie in with the movie.
There are a lot of characters, and they are introduced in a way that is not all that skill full. In fact three are so many that, once I was into the book, when a chapter that concentrated on one character ended and the next started, I would often have to think about who that was and what their backstory was.
All of the characters that end up in the hotel are introduced in the first part of the book, even though some do not end up there straight away, and again because you have not heard from them in a while you do have to think about who they are. In a way, I think the author has tried to cram too many characters into too few pages - at only 281 pages, this book could have been fifty percent longer and still seemed like quite a quick read.
The book has a melancholy feel to it. I do like the way that some of the characters are extremely memorable - it is hard not to like Norman, even though he is basically a dirty old man, and whilst some of the older characters are painted (I think deliberately) somewhat as stereotypes, once they get to India they all seem to come out of their shell.
So to sum up: the characters should have been introduced more gradually, the book needed to be longer, but at heart it tries to remind us that older people are basically younger people in older bodies - their age should not define them, though increasingly in our society it seems to do that.
So generally I liked it. I will now watch the movie!