opaline's review against another edition
4.0
An entertaining, time travelling, fast paced romp of a story, largely set in 1890s Denmark and modern day London. Told from the point of view of Charlotte, an orphaned Danish prostitute, who regularly addresses the reader directly. There's a light smattering of Danish words throughout the text which I often found myself looking up. I think it was worth my time to do so, as it really helped to build the picture of what Charlotte was experiencing and the food they were indulging in.
A unique story that crosses genres, Liz Jensen has quite the imagination. I will definitely try reading some more of her books.
A unique story that crosses genres, Liz Jensen has quite the imagination. I will definitely try reading some more of her books.
victoria80's review against another edition
3.0
Struggling to get into this. Will keep at it though. Great idea, had all the components for a great story but it felt like it was just skimming the storyline. And the end was too predictable.
lisaradocchia's review against another edition
What an awesome title. I don’t recall the exact moment I purchased this book, but I think it was a bargain book from when I worked for Barnes&Noble, or maybe it was from one of the street vendors on Telegraph in Berkeley that sold it to me. I know I bought it cheap because the title was so cool. My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time turned out to be (gasp!) a dirty little book that was a total waste of time.
Full disclosure: I didn’t finish the book. I couldn’t, and it has been a long time since that has happened. I usually find out sooner than the beginning of Part 3 that I don’t like something, but the book tricked me.
The basic premise is that a prostitute travels through time to the future (our time). She decides to use this technology to go back to the past and start a brothel, funded by money stolen from the only guy she meets in the future which to her utter surprise, she falls in love with.
If that trite plot doesn’t reel you in, she brings him with her to the past. Yeah, because he knows about history, and stuff.
The worst, worst part is that I read so much of it before putting it down. Even the sex in the book is tame, mild even, which leads this reader to wonder, “Why would Jensen send a prostitute back in time, if not to remark on the differences between sex then and now?” What a waste, a title this good should go on a better book.
Entertaining? Barely. Actually, no.
Thought-provoking? Not really.
Worth reading? Definitely not.
Full disclosure: I didn’t finish the book. I couldn’t, and it has been a long time since that has happened. I usually find out sooner than the beginning of Part 3 that I don’t like something, but the book tricked me.
The basic premise is that a prostitute travels through time to the future (our time). She decides to use this technology to go back to the past and start a brothel, funded by money stolen from the only guy she meets in the future which to her utter surprise, she falls in love with.
If that trite plot doesn’t reel you in, she brings him with her to the past. Yeah, because he knows about history, and stuff.
The worst, worst part is that I read so much of it before putting it down. Even the sex in the book is tame, mild even, which leads this reader to wonder, “Why would Jensen send a prostitute back in time, if not to remark on the differences between sex then and now?” What a waste, a title this good should go on a better book.
Entertaining? Barely. Actually, no.
Thought-provoking? Not really.
Worth reading? Definitely not.
survivalisinsufficient's review against another edition
4.0
Oohoo, time travel and Danish prostitutes. The love story part was much less fun than the rest of it, I have to say, but I really enjoyed it.
jar7709's review against another edition
4.0
Our protagonist is a prostitute in old London who enjoys her work with a fantastic sense of morality and a wicked sense of humor. This one was a joy to read.
oldenglishrose's review against another edition
4.0
Charlotte, the narrator, is a young woman living in nineteenth century Copenhagen, where she supports herself and Fru Schelswig, the fat, base old woman whom everyone assumes is her mother, by working as a prostitute. When the cold winter drives her to seek further employment, she and Fru Schelswig find themselves working for the disagreeable Fru Krak, cleaning her house from top to bottom with the exception of certain forbidden rooms in the basement. Convinced there must be something hidden there worth stealing, Charlotte cannot help investigating and discovers a mysterious machine left there by Fru Krak’s vanished husband which will change the course of her life forever as it catapults her, all unknowing, into twenty-first century London.
This is the sort of book for which the term ‘romp’ was invented. It is light-hearted, witty, filled with adventure and generally great fun to read. If nothing hugely surprising happens, the plot is sufficiently exciting and the narration more than engaging enough in spite of that to draw the reader in and keep hold of their attention throughout.
Charlotte’s voice is one of the key features which makes the book so enjoyable. She is self-assured and inclined towards melodrama and exaggeration, but her easy humour transforms this from a narrative style that could have been alienating and tiresome into one that is self aware and not afraid to be self mocking. My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time is rather silly and the book knows it and takes great pleasure in being so. Charlotte’s habit of referring to the reader directly as ‘dearest‘ and complimenting them frequently is just one example of the book’s playfulness which makes it so much fun.
Although people travelling backwards in time to visit periods in history is a subject often addressed in fiction, the reverse situation depicted in this book is not, and Liz Jensen does a wonderful job of imagining the twenty-first century as seen through the eyes of someone from the past: "But the dream did not end, & could not be escaped from so easily, & indeed it then most swiftly turned nightmarish, for waiting at the black wrought-iron park entrance…stood a shiny black carriage of iron, horseless, on four wheels, that growled like a foul-tempered hippopotamus. Professor Krak bade us enter it through a door in its side: ‘Our means of transport, ladies,’ he said, & then, in a foreign tongue which I presumed to be English, commenced a rushed conversation with the driver of the vehicle, who was – Lord! I could scarcely believe my eyes! – as black as a coal-scuttle, just like in the illustrations of man-eating cannibals I had seen in the cellar at the orphanage! But before I could scream in terror & make my escape, the machine roared to life with a smooth lurch & we sped into the pellucid gloaming which in that place seemed to pass for night."
All this is related in a mixture of archaicisms and modern slang which seems peculiarly appropriate to a time traveller. Simple devices such as the use of ampersand instead of ‘and’ provide continuous reminders that Charlotte is from the past. Fru Shleswig is also given an effective, distinctive manner of speaking, using a sort of Middle English spelling which implies her ignorance and peasant-like bluntness.
The book isn’t without its faults. For an adventurous book about time travel, it takes a surprisingly long time in exposition building up to this actually taking place and although it is interesting from the beginning because of the narrator the story could perhaps have benefited from starting a bit sooner. The pacing of the narrative remains slightly uneven throughout the book, but this is never enough of a problem to affect the enjoyment of reading such a thoroughly entertaining book.
This is the sort of book for which the term ‘romp’ was invented. It is light-hearted, witty, filled with adventure and generally great fun to read. If nothing hugely surprising happens, the plot is sufficiently exciting and the narration more than engaging enough in spite of that to draw the reader in and keep hold of their attention throughout.
Charlotte’s voice is one of the key features which makes the book so enjoyable. She is self-assured and inclined towards melodrama and exaggeration, but her easy humour transforms this from a narrative style that could have been alienating and tiresome into one that is self aware and not afraid to be self mocking. My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time is rather silly and the book knows it and takes great pleasure in being so. Charlotte’s habit of referring to the reader directly as ‘dearest‘ and complimenting them frequently is just one example of the book’s playfulness which makes it so much fun.
Although people travelling backwards in time to visit periods in history is a subject often addressed in fiction, the reverse situation depicted in this book is not, and Liz Jensen does a wonderful job of imagining the twenty-first century as seen through the eyes of someone from the past: "But the dream did not end, & could not be escaped from so easily, & indeed it then most swiftly turned nightmarish, for waiting at the black wrought-iron park entrance…stood a shiny black carriage of iron, horseless, on four wheels, that growled like a foul-tempered hippopotamus. Professor Krak bade us enter it through a door in its side: ‘Our means of transport, ladies,’ he said, & then, in a foreign tongue which I presumed to be English, commenced a rushed conversation with the driver of the vehicle, who was – Lord! I could scarcely believe my eyes! – as black as a coal-scuttle, just like in the illustrations of man-eating cannibals I had seen in the cellar at the orphanage! But before I could scream in terror & make my escape, the machine roared to life with a smooth lurch & we sped into the pellucid gloaming which in that place seemed to pass for night."
All this is related in a mixture of archaicisms and modern slang which seems peculiarly appropriate to a time traveller. Simple devices such as the use of ampersand instead of ‘and’ provide continuous reminders that Charlotte is from the past. Fru Shleswig is also given an effective, distinctive manner of speaking, using a sort of Middle English spelling which implies her ignorance and peasant-like bluntness.
The book isn’t without its faults. For an adventurous book about time travel, it takes a surprisingly long time in exposition building up to this actually taking place and although it is interesting from the beginning because of the narrator the story could perhaps have benefited from starting a bit sooner. The pacing of the narrative remains slightly uneven throughout the book, but this is never enough of a problem to affect the enjoyment of reading such a thoroughly entertaining book.
scissorsrun's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75