How could I go wrong with this one? I have read it many times, but did so this time with the hope of finding something new. Well, Long John Silver is nothing like Robert Newton, but he is a powerful and dangerous man. Captain Smollett was very much a cipher when I read the book before, but he emerges as an uncelebrated hero. Even the terrible old blowhard buccanneer, Billy Bones, has an extra dimension on the umpteenth re-reading, singing a wistful song about a lost love on one occasion, a sort of an interlude between his innumerable terrible sea shanties.
The book has everything, excellent pacing, strong characters, a great story line (even if it is the zillionth version of the well-worn quest theme) and an idyllic setting. Who would not be Jim Hawkins? I can't find anything bad to say about it.
10 out of 10
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
This one took me ages to finish, but the effort was, for the most part, well rewarded.
Two families, three generations, destinies interlocked for over fifty years. The characters stay with you - the fanatical Hortense, the urbane Magid, his twin, the delinquent and then fanatical Millat, the ridiculous Joyce Chalfen, her husband the impractical but brilliant biogeneticist Marcus, the mutilated and ancestor-worshipping, backward looking Samad Iqbal - and there are sections where there is a laugh on every page. The very young author has been compared to Dickens, and the comparison is a fair one, with her gift for characterisation and ear for idiosyncratic dialogue. The characters, among other things, symbolise a clash of cultures, a conflict between fundamentalism and science and ways old and new.
The climax of the novel - well, actually, the confluence of events at the end, was a bit confusing and I think I must have missed something, which is why the book doesn't get a higher score. But if you want something with unforgettable characters, and laugh out loud, omnisicient comments on every page, this one is for you.
Rating: 7 out of 10.
Two families, three generations, destinies interlocked for over fifty years. The characters stay with you - the fanatical Hortense, the urbane Magid, his twin, the delinquent and then fanatical Millat, the ridiculous Joyce Chalfen, her husband the impractical but brilliant biogeneticist Marcus, the mutilated and ancestor-worshipping, backward looking Samad Iqbal - and there are sections where there is a laugh on every page. The very young author has been compared to Dickens, and the comparison is a fair one, with her gift for characterisation and ear for idiosyncratic dialogue. The characters, among other things, symbolise a clash of cultures, a conflict between fundamentalism and science and ways old and new.
The climax of the novel - well, actually, the confluence of events at the end, was a bit confusing and I think I must have missed something, which is why the book doesn't get a higher score. But if you want something with unforgettable characters, and laugh out loud, omnisicient comments on every page, this one is for you.
Rating: 7 out of 10.
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