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Reading this makes me feel as if I am in the novel. I feel like I am the one attempting to digest and work out the ulterior motives at play.
HIs use of detachment from the ulterior motives of the ‘Circus' allows the reader to fully grasp the ‘left in the dark' attitude of the protagonist and Liz. The presentation of those on the other side as friendly and comrades presents the disenfranchised agent perfectly.
One of my favourites, Le Carré does it again.
Not normally a big romance guy but wow this book was good.
Fascinating character depth which at first seems just like ‘hotshot New Yorker goes to small town' but actively distances itself from the trope. Nora's high-flying publishing career gets put on hold for her summer vacation with her sister. The novel charts the development of her sibling relationship and deals with her love life in a way which at no points seems unrealistic or ‘too magical'.
I read it in one sitting as every character mentioned is intriguing and almost reads as a mystery as you await to uncover new details. At every point the reader feels a sense of discovery, leaving no sense of a wasted page or paragraph.
I will be waxing lyrical about this book to my reading friends trying to seem niche and interesting about a book which was voted the best romance book on GoodReads, but for bloody good reason too!
Excellent cutting sabermetric book.
Only thing that stopped it short of five stars can't even really be blamed on the book itself, just the waxing lyrical of Bauer, Clevinger and the 2017 Astros taints it slightly. I guess I can't blame Lindbergh for not being a psychic!
Very interesting overall read of the changing landscape.
Very funny and a prose style which I adored. Lewis' passivity and ridicule of nationality strikes as almost farcical but his construction of Tarr and Kreisler paints them vividly. He leaves a lot to be desired in his description of women, often they just exists as groups or mostly love interests.
In parts this book lacks a driving narrative but I think also that's the charm. A bumbling man of Tarr working out what he wants and never arriving at it is summative of the artistic views Lewis holds also,
Quite an interesting epilogue as he deals with the german characters of the novel, prologue being written in 1918 whereas the novel is 1911
Reading a utopia which doesn't present simply a whole different world but rather a microcosm of a house and creates a small society is a fresher way to look at Utopia.
In parts this book reads slightly weird with the interconnected love stories as Clapperton appears to search for a plot to flesh out her utopian novel.
Overall an enjoyable book.
Criticims of this book often are that the novel is too high on substance rather than content. Frankly, I find this a rather redundant viewpoint.
Plascencia's style allows the substance of the novel to be explored in an unconventional and different way. The baby Nostradamus for instance being blacked out instead of saying ‘he didn't speak' allows the reader to infer their own image of the text.
I recognise to some aspect the self-fulfilling nature of placing himself as the main character but the evolution of the novel and exploring the relationship between not only characters and the page but the novelist, their real life and the page is a dynamic often left unexplored.
I found this novels characters separate and endearing, leaving one desiring to know what happens to every single one of them. The confusion that exists is designed to challenge us and challenge the way we interpret novels.
A thoroughly enjoying and different read.
