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A review by vikingvisuals
Anna by Jostein Gaarder
2.0
I just finished reading this book in the original Norwegian, and in that since can say nothing to the quality of this specific translation, but nonetheless I must say the book, despite being only 220 pages, seemed to drag on and on with similar concepts repeating and other concepts never truly being brought to an understandable conclusion.
The book started off interesting enough and I presumed that it would develop into a wonderful, thought provoking book on climate change that may be powerful enough to influence those who read it. Unfortunately the charm of the book was quickly lost when the story started to "develop". At first I was confused with the random sequences switching between time periods and characters, then as the book went on I realized that the formula just needed to be flushed out. Unfortunately the formula was completely unsatisfactory. A dream sequence in one time period would essentially just be re-explained and described in further detail in the next chapter through Anna to either her psychologist or her boyfriend.
The characters are uninteresting and the happenings in the book just make it feel dull. Since my Norwegian is not perfect I originally thought it was just a misunderstanding, but after rereading passages carefully (and now looking at the review of others) I realize it was no misunderstanding, simply just that confusing at times.
When it comes to the environmental parts and arguments for the importance of taking care of the earth, the book may be good for its intended younger audience. For older readers it may however be uninteresting, especially if you are familiar with climate change, the science behind it, and the arguments to change it. Nonetheless very important and some of the passages are in this regard interesting to read. Unfortunately the stories within the story are more interesting then the story itself and in that regard I would not really recommend it. I found the ending to be very lacking and only more confusing and felt like a lot of things were not concluded. Yet the open ends were not interesting enough for me to care about what their possible meanings could have been.
The book started off interesting enough and I presumed that it would develop into a wonderful, thought provoking book on climate change that may be powerful enough to influence those who read it. Unfortunately the charm of the book was quickly lost when the story started to "develop". At first I was confused with the random sequences switching between time periods and characters, then as the book went on I realized that the formula just needed to be flushed out. Unfortunately the formula was completely unsatisfactory. A dream sequence in one time period would essentially just be re-explained and described in further detail in the next chapter through Anna to either her psychologist or her boyfriend.
The characters are uninteresting and the happenings in the book just make it feel dull. Since my Norwegian is not perfect I originally thought it was just a misunderstanding, but after rereading passages carefully (and now looking at the review of others) I realize it was no misunderstanding, simply just that confusing at times.
When it comes to the environmental parts and arguments for the importance of taking care of the earth, the book may be good for its intended younger audience. For older readers it may however be uninteresting, especially if you are familiar with climate change, the science behind it, and the arguments to change it. Nonetheless very important and some of the passages are in this regard interesting to read. Unfortunately the stories within the story are more interesting then the story itself and in that regard I would not really recommend it. I found the ending to be very lacking and only more confusing and felt like a lot of things were not concluded. Yet the open ends were not interesting enough for me to care about what their possible meanings could have been.