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A review by angelajuniper
The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay
3.0
Well, this book took me about 5 months to read (I had to intersperse with other, shorter, faster-than-molasses stories to keep me sane). Bryce tends to be quite heavygoing to start with before his final third sucks the reader in till I was savouring every over-extended and unnecessary description that peppered the pages.
Ikey Solomon is a character I liked mildly throughout this book. Suited for his time, he was a proud and grumpy bugger, always on the lookout for the shine of a penny or a sleazy business relationship he could engage for 'just in case' purposes. His dealings and issues with the law took him from London, to the states and finally Australia where he learnt hard lessons, saw life from a different perspective, and bought some joy to others before his final rest.
His friend/mistress/employee Mary Abacus is a great character with enough pep and layers to pacify the sentimental types who search for the human interest thread amongst these 900+ page giants.
His wife Hannah, however, I had a problem with. Not just because she was a bit blah and typical of a nasty woman who loves her kids and hates her husband, but because Bryce Courtenay seemed to dispose of her thread in the novel with all the climax of a dead daffodil. With only 50 pages to go, I found myself going forward to see if I could find the name 'Hannah' and find out what happened to her. Odd.
The first half of 'The Potato Factory' was wordy and slow. At the halfway point it gradually accelerates until the last few hundred pages, where it seems Courtenay is so keen to get the rest of the plot to paper that it reads out of keeping with the rest of the book.
But if the intention was to act in a soap opera style hanger, in which you need to tune in next time to get some of your questions answered, then I guess it worked. I have already asked my mum if I can borrow her copy of "Tommo and Hawk'.
Fair play, B.C.
Ikey Solomon is a character I liked mildly throughout this book. Suited for his time, he was a proud and grumpy bugger, always on the lookout for the shine of a penny or a sleazy business relationship he could engage for 'just in case' purposes. His dealings and issues with the law took him from London, to the states and finally Australia where he learnt hard lessons, saw life from a different perspective, and bought some joy to others before his final rest.
His friend/mistress/employee Mary Abacus is a great character with enough pep and layers to pacify the sentimental types who search for the human interest thread amongst these 900+ page giants.
His wife Hannah, however, I had a problem with. Not just because she was a bit blah and typical of a nasty woman who loves her kids and hates her husband, but because Bryce Courtenay seemed to dispose of her thread in the novel with all the climax of a dead daffodil. With only 50 pages to go, I found myself going forward to see if I could find the name 'Hannah' and find out what happened to her. Odd.
The first half of 'The Potato Factory' was wordy and slow. At the halfway point it gradually accelerates until the last few hundred pages, where it seems Courtenay is so keen to get the rest of the plot to paper that it reads out of keeping with the rest of the book.
But if the intention was to act in a soap opera style hanger, in which you need to tune in next time to get some of your questions answered, then I guess it worked. I have already asked my mum if I can borrow her copy of "Tommo and Hawk'.
Fair play, B.C.