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A review by rhodaj
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
2.0
2.5 stars
This was my read the world selection for Egypt.
In 1901 Lady Anna leaves England for Egypt and falls in love with an Egyptian man. In 1997, Isabel is an American in love with an Egyptian-American and on discovering her own ancestral link to Egypt, travels there with notebooks and journals she finds on her ancestor’s lives.
The earlier timeline of this book is interesting and well written, however was completely spoilt for me by the later timeline which is just weird and boring and includes a possible unresolved case of incest that is more or less dropped and forgotten about.
There are about four narrators in this book and it was often confusing as to who was narrating, particularly as the transitions between timelines were quite clumsy. As such, the book didn’t have a good flow for me. I also didn’t enjoy the political sections in this book. I’m not bored by politics generally, but the writing was quite dull and boring. The political sections were more interesting when relayed in letter format by Anna.
I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it just focused on Anna and spent more time investing in revealing more about the characters in her part of the story, but as it was written I can’t really say I enjoyed the book much overall which is a pity as I do think some parts of it were quite good. ⭐️⭐️.5/5
This was my read the world selection for Egypt.
In 1901 Lady Anna leaves England for Egypt and falls in love with an Egyptian man. In 1997, Isabel is an American in love with an Egyptian-American and on discovering her own ancestral link to Egypt, travels there with notebooks and journals she finds on her ancestor’s lives.
The earlier timeline of this book is interesting and well written, however was completely spoilt for me by the later timeline which is just weird and boring and includes a possible unresolved case of incest that is more or less dropped and forgotten about.
There are about four narrators in this book and it was often confusing as to who was narrating, particularly as the transitions between timelines were quite clumsy. As such, the book didn’t have a good flow for me. I also didn’t enjoy the political sections in this book. I’m not bored by politics generally, but the writing was quite dull and boring. The political sections were more interesting when relayed in letter format by Anna.
I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it just focused on Anna and spent more time investing in revealing more about the characters in her part of the story, but as it was written I can’t really say I enjoyed the book much overall which is a pity as I do think some parts of it were quite good. ⭐️⭐️.5/5