Dagnabbit

Funny till the last 10%

Revisado: 03-23-24

Very clever absurdist comedy, with some unexpected plot changes to start with. An Everyman meets up with science fiction mysterious characters - he tries to find out what they are up to. Similes and alliterations made me laugh out loud, but the author is eventually distracted by the same type of thing that authors of time travel plots get stuck in. What happens if you see yourself when in the Time Machine?? Etc. It’s just not that deep, really. That sort of conundrum, I mean. (This book doesn’t have time machines. I only mention them as an example). This leads to too much philosophizing which makes the ending about an hour longer than it should be.

So overall, I enjoyed it. except for the end. The reader was great, perfect for this kind of thing. If you enjoy wordplay, and a kind of British sense of humor, you’ll enjoy it, even if you do end up using the little round fast-forward buttons to help get to the point in the end. You won’t miss much by doing it.

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Self absorbed and over sentimental

Revisado: 07-30-22

If this is magical realism it is not for me. Too much grasping at obvious truths or saying nonsense followed by things like- “you just can’t explain it with words “. Well that’s a big problem if you’re an author, and without at least a little hint here and there, we just have the emperor’s new clothes: we are supposed to ooh and ahh, so deep and meaningful! (But nobody really gets it, and doubtful that the author has it in his own mind either).

I liked the old man and his side kick characters and their narrators, and the spicy bits, but 15-year-old Kafka’s character was tedious and clunky, with a breathless narrator to match. A teenager and his draaama. Since many reviews said that this was their favorite Murakami, it’s my first and last.

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Thoroughly explained a favorite filmmaker’s world

Revisado: 07-06-22

If you are at all touched by the gems of studio ghibli and films such as spirited away, princess Mononoke, Totoro or Nausica valley of the wind, you’ll get lots from this film by film exploration. The author, a fine narrator, connects the themes of each movie to their context in post ww2 Japan, 14th century Japanese history and fable, and the director’s likely internal motives. Makes me want to go back to watch a few of these amazing films, most of which run on net flix from time to time.

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Clumsy and predictable

Revisado: 02-13-22

A fairy tale about 2 nice people who forgot things. Will they remember them? What if they do? Is it better not to?
There. I wrote the book. $30 please.

Less flippantly tho, this is my first Ishiguro book and I’m at a loss to explain the regard I read of him. I may give one more chance with his prize winners but if it ends up like this one, it’s back to the return heap.

If I don’t forget.

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John Lee adds so much

Revisado: 12-13-21

A sly voice adds so much to his reading of the series and makes it from a historical whodunnit into a wry tale and a terrific main character slipping through Rome’s intrigues. Loved it. And it’s predecessor.

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A sea story as context for human drama & unforgettable characters

Revisado: 03-28-21

Again the world of jack aubrey and Steven Maturin and their tangles with family, intelligence wiles and the dangers of sea travel are amazingly transporting. Humorous dialogue and terrifying danger, pathos, heroic ingenuity, the works. Narrator is perfect for this series.

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Wonderfully crafted, two of my favorite people, at sea and on land.

Revisado: 01-09-21

I’ve read all the series-15? 18? volumes but that was 25 years ago. I knew I loved captain Jack Aubrey and especially his dry, crafty, loving friend Dr Maturin. Over the years and the wars and the affairs and adventures you see a picture of a single man, half spirited violin, half contemplative cello. I wish I WISH I could go to sea with them, in the world of the early 1800s, before the world was ruined. If you have a taste for historical fiction, grown-up humor, hair raising battles, honorable and loyal friendship, you will go deep into these.

And if you don’t know about boats or ships or knots or masts, don’t worry about that. Ignore it, just take that it is the joy of the captain and the pride of his crew to make their ship sail along as trim and nautically perfect an dangerous to the enemy as ever they can. The lead character, scientist Dr Maturin is a landsman, who knows less about such things than you do, and so gets some explanations that anyone can enjoy.

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Don’t let this one put you off Elmore Leonard

Revisado: 09-17-20

There are better Elmore Leonards, better by a long shot. The reader missed the point of some of Leonard’s wiseguy deadpan cool affects, and added some silly aspects to the voices. Unneeded falsettos for the females made it even less believable. But the similar cool character so well portrayed in the later works, was there in Stick, one of the two hapless criminals who dominate this story. It was good enough to keep me until the end, wondering if would turn out well or just go bad for them... uncertain to the last. That’s a sign of a decent tale, right? Not completely predictable? Try Cuba Libre, or Tishomigo Blues, or The Hot Kid. Sly and cool and smart.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Thats it?

Revisado: 05-23-20

Unimaginative crazyguy who doesnt understand girls captures a woman. Can she escape? Maybe. Maybe not.

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Hum Ho. Predictable

Revisado: 02-22-20

I did like the information on building a cathedral in medieval times and the whole context, but the characters - William the wicked, Philip the wise, Ellen the atheist were made-for-tv simple. Follet's proud atheism is also of the most puerile sort, a distraction meant to allay the modern unthinking sheep who enjoy watching someone they imagine has done his research take a cheap jab at the dumbest Christians around. There's not a real one to be found in Pillars of the Earth. All the devout are shown as dullards or head-in-the-clouds escapists.

Some of this could be borne if the writing was better. Sappy love yearnings interlaced with long, obvious, unimaginative, and dull sex scenes, including at least 3 rapes in needless gory detail. None of which added to the dramatic points - the perpetrator was bad, real bad. The couple was wild about each other. Yup. Move along.

Follet should enjoy his royalties - he takes a surprising amount of time telling us in his forward that lots of people bought this book, that nobody but he believed it was so great until lots of books were sold, and that he's making piles of money from it. Sorry some of it was mine.

Narrator did what he could with the material, grandiose as it was.

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