alireuter 's review for:

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

3.0

---

throughout my childhood i was exposed to a lot of modern takes on classic books, & one that has been so engrained into my brain was the film of gullivers travels with jack black & emily blunt. so of course i had my critical hat on when reading the classic, i mean how are you going to beat the epitome of cinema? as my rating reveals, i was not completely captivated by the novel. i often tried to place myself in the position of reading the book from the time it was written & it did unearth a sense of wonder & curiosity that i think was really helpful. the discussion around other cultures & identity with an empathetic approach was probably groundbreaking in these colonial times, as well as the comic style which added a fresh take on the story. however i couldn’t help but feel distracted by my boredom, & once you realise you’re not completely immersed in the book, it’s very difficult to get out. i understand & appreciate the importance of this story & loved the imagination of swift, however between the tangents of descriptions & the lack of dialogue, it felt lost on me.