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rieviolet 's review for:
Quattro lettere d'amore
by Niall Williams
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've read two other books by Niall Williams, This Is Happiness and History of the Rain, and both of them were 5-star reads for me, so you can imagine what kind of expectations I had when starting this novel. Well, it turned out to be a great disappointment.
I cannot fault the writing style, Williams has a magical way of putting words together on a page. The descriptions of nature were top-notch.
Sadly, everything else was just a let-down.
I couldn't connect with the characters and I didn't like the story. I thought that it might get better but it just kept taking twists and turns that only deepened my dislike.
I also struggled more than usual with the religious tones of the story, above all, the idea that life is nothing but a fixed path decided by a deity up above. It just drove me up the wall! Especially as we saw characters actively making choices and thus bringing misery to themselves and to others. It was particularly hard to wrap my mind around Nicholas's mother's storyline, what I was supposed to take out of it?
I cannot fault the writing style, Williams has a magical way of putting words together on a page. The descriptions of nature were top-notch.
Sadly, everything else was just a let-down.
I couldn't connect with the characters and I didn't like the story. I thought that it might get better but it just kept taking twists and turns that only deepened my dislike.
I also struggled more than usual with the religious tones of the story, above all, the idea that life is nothing but a fixed path decided by a deity up above. It just drove me up the wall! Especially as we saw characters actively making choices and thus bringing misery to themselves and to others. It was particularly hard to wrap my mind around Nicholas's mother's storyline, what I was supposed to take out of it?
There were some otherworldly scenes that were just too much (especially the ones with Nicholas in the throes of his passion/obsession for Isabel), they felt like a horrible fever dream that I was unfortunate enough to have to experience.
I also didn't like how the narrative was structured: so much of it is a prelude to this supposedly rare and beautiful love story but, in the end, we never get to see it, it just happens out of nowhere and we never really delve into its blossoming and growing, we only catch glimpses of it through short flashbacks or characters's words. Maybe that's a precise authorial intention but, personally, it felt just like a overly dragging set-up, with not enough of a payoff.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail