Shallow and disappointing
Well, I hate to disparage a new novelist, but the best thing I can say about this book is that it's a pretty good first draft. Generational sagas are one of my favorite genre, but this book was disappointing in more than one aspect. The characters were one-dimensional and unsympathetic, not seeming connected to each other or to their own tedious endless lives. Trying to avoid 'spoilers', there some story lines that were totally unresolved and the book seemed to end abruptly with no enlightenment or climax.
Rated of 5
by Christine P. (San Francisco, CA)
The Roots of the Olive Tree?
Being from Northern California, I was very excited to read The Roots of the Olive Tree. I ended up being disappointed. I think there were too many characters and too many secrets to unravel and too many gaps in the story left blank. By the time I got to the end of the book, I had a hard time figuring out what the author was trying to tell me. Was this supposed to be a story about family, women, relationships, longevity, olive growing, prison reform, forgiveness, what? These all make for great elements in a story and when combined can become something special. But more often, it’s best to leave things in their purest form, like many good olive oils, and see what develops.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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of 5
by Jinny K. (Fremont, CA)
