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xandrarama's review against another edition
3.0
The author is a poet, and it shows. This is undoubtedly a lyrical book, in places a beautiful one, in places a powerful one. But there are only so many metaphors I can process and I did feel some impatience with the meandering nature of this novel, which felt more like a series of philosophical reflections than a story.
blurbetal's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
the_sassy_bookworm's review against another edition
3.0
This probably falls between a 3 and a 4 star rating for me. It is just a gorgeously written book and for 3/4 of the way I was captivated, but then my interested started to wane a bit and I found it hard to get through the last 1/4th.
thomasgoddard's review against another edition
5.0
Marvellous, there are no more words. Just miraculously beautiful.
whogivesabook's review against another edition
5.0
Marvellous, there are no more words. Just miraculously beautiful.
lightfoxing's review against another edition
5.0
This is nigh on sacrilegious, but I may just prefer this to [b: Fugitive Pieces|15836|Fugitive Pieces|Anne Michaels|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327866798s/15836.jpg|253710]. Barely. It's beautiful and a bit soul destroying and those who can't find a plot in this aren't reading closely enough, or aren't feeling closely enough. I imagine this is the type of book one revisits, and I'm already looking forward to finding out what I'll get out of it the next time.
lazygal's review against another edition
2.0
This book feels well-written. By that I mean, a torrent of words, landscapes and emotions but... but... it feels that way, which to me says it ain't necessarily so. For me, a well-written book is one into which I can escape without noticing the craft of writing. This book doesn't quite do that.
The endless commentary on the "art" of building dams and flooding villages, how disruptive that is to nature and to people, could have been cut in half. Jean's obsession with botany at times reads like a lecture, not a plot point. And the very studied nature of the dialog and flashbacks were too studied.
It took me a long time to read this because I really wanted to like it more than I did (I'd taken a long time to get into Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, too, and thought this might be another experience like that was). Unfortunately, every time I got interested, like when Aswan Dam finally starts flooding the valley - or when Jean starts going back to school - or the fate of Ramses' head, the book slowed down and I lost interest again.
The endless commentary on the "art" of building dams and flooding villages, how disruptive that is to nature and to people, could have been cut in half. Jean's obsession with botany at times reads like a lecture, not a plot point. And the very studied nature of the dialog and flashbacks were too studied.
It took me a long time to read this because I really wanted to like it more than I did (I'd taken a long time to get into Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, too, and thought this might be another experience like that was). Unfortunately, every time I got interested, like when Aswan Dam finally starts flooding the valley - or when Jean starts going back to school - or the fate of Ramses' head, the book slowed down and I lost interest again.
misslezlee's review against another edition
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I was going to. Penelope Lively captures Egypt so much better in "Moon Tiger", with far more accessible prose. I felt like Michael's writing got in the way of the actual story.
slrsmith's review against another edition
Nope. Lost patience with this one rather quickly. Too fanciful, too disjointed and lacking in narrative. I scratched my head wondering what was going on within the first few pages when I got to a description of an early hominid three hundred thousand years ago appreciating a rock resembling the figure of a woman, and working the stone to improve the likeness. I gave up on page 44 when she describes the general feeling after the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway as people being afraid to swim in the river because of the bodies in the cemeteries that were flooded. Fanciful to say the least. I could get it if she was attributing this feeling to one character, but as a general feeling amongst the people? No. In reality, there are public beaches all along the affected area that the locals are more than happy to make use of. Still, I could forgive the fanciful, poetic license if I felt like we were going anywhere with it. However, 44 pages and all that has been established is that there are two characters called Jean and Avery, and they are both somehow witness to two dam projects, one in Canada and one in Egypt. The rest has basically been snippets of imagery, memories, musings, meditations etc. Yes, lives, ecosystems, archeology and livelihoods are affected by mass-scale dam projects but Michaels appears content to wallow in sentiment and nostalgia as a foil for the rationality of "progress". I really liked Fugitive Pieces but this one is, for me, a dud.