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A review by poischiche31
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
1.5
I love historical fiction and I often read big books, so what could go wrong? Lol. Began reading, and I only finished this absolute slog out of pride.
The writing reads like a verbose textbook. It’s not so much a novel as a fictionalized historical research report. The characters, of which there are far too many, are altogether poorly developed. What motivated Jacob? Who was he on the inside? 1000 pages later and I have no idea who Jacob, our titular character, really was. This goes for every character we meet.
The short chapters are sporadic, unfocused, monotonous. The conclusion reads like a genealogy report.
The illustrations, IMO, add nothing to the book. Sometimes they make no sense or seemingly have no connection to the text they’re placed next to. But every time I saw the dark outlines of a photograph shining through the next page, I rejoiced, for these photos reduced the number of words on a page.
To sum up the book: blah blah blah blah blah
The writing reads like a verbose textbook. It’s not so much a novel as a fictionalized historical research report. The characters, of which there are far too many, are altogether poorly developed. What motivated Jacob? Who was he on the inside? 1000 pages later and I have no idea who Jacob, our titular character, really was. This goes for every character we meet.
The short chapters are sporadic, unfocused, monotonous. The conclusion reads like a genealogy report.
The illustrations, IMO, add nothing to the book. Sometimes they make no sense or seemingly have no connection to the text they’re placed next to. But every time I saw the dark outlines of a photograph shining through the next page, I rejoiced, for these photos reduced the number of words on a page.
To sum up the book: blah blah blah blah blah