left_coast_justin's review
2.0
This was awful. I really enjoyed it.
Let me explain. After reading a few very challenging books in a row, I wanted something that would carry me along without too much mental effort on my part. This book had a plot, and certainly identified who the good guys and bad guys were, although frankly there weren't many distinguishing features between the two groups. Predictably, the good guys were American Caucasians and the bad guys were ethnic types from the 'Stans' of the former Soviet Union.
The alleged strength of this book is that it was written by an insider in the world of Moscow finance, and is closely true to life. I'm willing to accept that, simply because the strength was definitely not the writing. They author seems unfamiliar with even the most basic uses of the comma, and the book is loaded with sentences like:
Which brings us to the second point, which is that Ludmilla, bless her heart, had a job. Leaving Ludmilla aside, the female characters in this book had only one role: To hang around rich guys in nightclubs. In a book that cared little for making things clear, every woman in this book had one sharply etched characteristic: she was less than half his age. No matter who she was, or he was. And on her rare breaks from the clubs, she spent her time at the plastic surgeons, apparently.
And then, just when my interest would start to flag, I'd stumble across a truly stunning sentence like this one:
NOTES
...it makes him sound like a spelunker
...there's an entire lexicon of verbs available for that whole entering-the-vagina activity that are widely recognized and might have made a better word choice
...his heart was swelling?
It served its purpose. I am now refreshed and ready to read some real literature again.
Let me explain. After reading a few very challenging books in a row, I wanted something that would carry me along without too much mental effort on my part. This book had a plot, and certainly identified who the good guys and bad guys were, although frankly there weren't many distinguishing features between the two groups. Predictably, the good guys were American Caucasians and the bad guys were ethnic types from the 'Stans' of the former Soviet Union.
The alleged strength of this book is that it was written by an insider in the world of Moscow finance, and is closely true to life. I'm willing to accept that, simply because the strength was definitely not the writing. They author seems unfamiliar with even the most basic uses of the comma, and the book is loaded with sentences like:
"Thanks Ludmilla" he said warmly sitting down to the coffee biscuits and fruit she had laid out on the table.
Which brings us to the second point, which is that Ludmilla, bless her heart, had a job. Leaving Ludmilla aside, the female characters in this book had only one role: To hang around rich guys in nightclubs. In a book that cared little for making things clear, every woman in this book had one sharply etched characteristic: she was less than half his age. No matter who she was, or he was. And on her rare breaks from the clubs, she spent her time at the plastic surgeons, apparently.
And then, just when my interest would start to flag, I'd stumble across a truly stunning sentence like this one:
As he prepared to enter the vagina of one of the beautiful young girls who'd joined him in the club's private room he could not help but look at himself in the gold-framed mirror of the ostentatiously decorated room and feel his heart swell with pride.
NOTES
...it makes him sound like a spelunker
...there's an entire lexicon of verbs available for that whole entering-the-vagina activity that are widely recognized and might have made a better word choice
...his heart was swelling?
It served its purpose. I am now refreshed and ready to read some real literature again.
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