Breaking Away - Anna Gavalda

49%
31.10.16

Points gained for a good, colloquial translation (for once) of a rather forgettable snapshot of four irritating, self-entitled siblings. I think the reader is expected to be on their side, but they were all so selfish that I didn't care. Interestingly French atmosphere, though.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

41%
30.07.12

Everywhere you look, there are omens, giving you profound and important direction on how to spend your life. If only I had paid attention to them before making disastrous decisions. Take this book, for example. Madonna recommends it. People who don't read much say it's life-changing. It's a poorly translated metaphorical fable about individualistic determinism. The omens are clear as the desert sun - I was never going to like it.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson

47%
19.07.10

The first 300 pages were boring. The next 100 pages were horrible. The last 100 pages were boring. Too much bewildering and unnecessary detail. Too many inconsistently drawn characters. I can enjoy a good thriller but this was neither good nor thrilling.

The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

51%
14.03.10

Should I have been moved by this? Or at least slightly interested in it? Perhaps it's the emotional distance created by the translation, or perhaps it's the cultural distance of German social politics, but it just didn't engage me.

The Character of Rain - Amelie Nothomb

01.08.05

48%


 
The harder this tried to be deep 'n' meaningful, the more inconsequential it turned out to be. She is quite good at imagining the solipsism of a three year old but it's just too weighed down with its own importance as a novel as well as a character.

Murder on the Leviathan - Boris Akunin

52%

26.07.05

This is rather strange - apparently a parody of Christie-style mystery novels, but those are already parodies of themselves so the irony fails. And the hero of the previous book appears to have undergone a character shift. Still, quite clever, quite fun, mostly harmless.

The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad

51%
13.07.05




This was lent to me so I felt obliged to read it. I didn't, however, feel obliged to go along with the obvious requirement of readers to compare these apprently true experiences of people in Afghanistan with life in the west. There's something uncomfortably patronising about the tone, although this could be partly down to poor translation. An important subject, yes, but an unsatisfying book.

Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

51%
06.06.05




Modern Ukranian literature, heavy with emphatic metaphor and stilted translation. Another culture, another perspective, quite an ingenious plot but too detached and odd to make a satisfying read.

The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin

63%
03.02.05




I forgot to review this, which isn't a very good sign. More literature in translation, more bumbling young heroes, a bit of adventure, a bit of violence, an afterthought of romance - and an ending out of character with the rest of the story in its deliberate intention to shock. Perhaps it should have swapped endings with 'The Shadow of the Wind'. A good yarn, though. Why do translations always have such bad punctuation?

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

65%
14.02.05




It's a bit disconcerting when the narrator tells you halfway through the novel that he won't live to the end of the story, even when a dark, gothic drama has come before. It's even more disconcerting when he not only survives but when everyone gets a happy ending. This book is what 'Carnevale' wanted to be, though it too was slightly ridiculous and not much fun - but richly written and densely plotted - not much actually happens but it certainly seems as if it does. Does it live up to the current hype? Well, it's essentially a beach read with literary pretentions - though it's also slightly strange.
[Ju's note: The main thing I remember about this book now is that all the women get pregnant so easily - and are punished for it. Interesting to note that this seems to be the R&J book I've enjoyed the most, and the score is 'good' not 'excellent'.]

Fear and Trembling - Amelie Nothomb

66%
14.12.04




I read this in two hours as an antidote to Dan Rhodes' pessimism. This, too, is a slightly surreal tale of betrayal and revenge, but told with a lighter touch and a sense of hope. It's also a story of racism and ignorance - from all sides - a fable of cultural misunderstanding. So not entirely a good choice to dilute the cynicism.

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

54%
15.06.03

It is big and it is clever but it's also pretentious, dull, and - most of all - arrogant. A PhD thesis about the ethical and political conflicts of 14th century monks is not converted into a decent novel by shoving a murder mystery into it. In his efforts to avoid superficiality, the author has tried to overload the story with historical details and the occasional blatant anachronism. A bit more humanity and a bit less posturing would have made a big difference. Too clever for its own good.

[Editorial note: at about this time I realised that I really needed to revise my grading system as I hated this but didn't even give it less than 50%...]