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A review by naimfrewat
Pars vite et reviens tard by Fred Vargas
3.0
A disappointment, so far.
The opening was decent. I enjoyed the writing, the description of objects in their relation to our everyday interaction with them. It was funny and smart. I thought the book was going to proceed in this vein. Then there came the setting of one of the characters and his backstory, and I also enjoyed reading that.
From then on, the book didn't pick up. I suppose it also has to do with what I'm expecting of it. That's the problem with genre books; one formulates assumptions and wants to see them realized.
I thought there was a pleasant shrouding of the mystery that got me asking where is the crime? I also liked that words, ancient words relayed to a random audience were part of that mystery.
When the actual resolution of the cases started and when the detective-hero was introduced, the writer lost me. I wasn't attracted, I couldn't understand his character, I wondered if some of the traits were supposed to be funny or repulsive - I mean, when dressing up portraits in crime series, it seems to me that stripped-down descriptions are not really welcome, particularly, when there's an element of humor or of rosy story telling going on.
I was missing some technical flavoring, a bit of ambience maybe, some minor reasoning as opposed to intuition.
I'll finish the book in a bit; I'm reading because Vargas came to me highly recommended and so maybe, something might pick up towards the end (not something, I particularly enjoy, but it may increase the rating form 2 to 3)
The opening was decent. I enjoyed the writing, the description of objects in their relation to our everyday interaction with them. It was funny and smart. I thought the book was going to proceed in this vein. Then there came the setting of one of the characters and his backstory, and I also enjoyed reading that.
From then on, the book didn't pick up. I suppose it also has to do with what I'm expecting of it. That's the problem with genre books; one formulates assumptions and wants to see them realized.
I thought there was a pleasant shrouding of the mystery that got me asking where is the crime? I also liked that words, ancient words relayed to a random audience were part of that mystery.
When the actual resolution of the cases started and when the detective-hero was introduced, the writer lost me. I wasn't attracted, I couldn't understand his character, I wondered if some of the traits were supposed to be funny or repulsive - I mean, when dressing up portraits in crime series, it seems to me that stripped-down descriptions are not really welcome, particularly, when there's an element of humor or of rosy story telling going on.
I was missing some technical flavoring, a bit of ambience maybe, some minor reasoning as opposed to intuition.
I'll finish the book in a bit; I'm reading because Vargas came to me highly recommended and so maybe, something might pick up towards the end (not something, I particularly enjoy, but it may increase the rating form 2 to 3)