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A review by peripetia
Umami by Laia Jufresa
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
DNF at 30%.
This has been on a my to-read list for a long time and I finally picked it up, fully expecting to be amazed and moved. I wasn't.
The time jumps were confusing and just felt kind of unnecessary. It was hard to tell which timeline we were following because they weren't very different from each other. The characters remained distant, expect for the anthropologist-widower, who explains his situation, thoughts, and feelings thoroughly.
I'm a very plot-driven reader and it takes a lot for a character-driven novel to hold my interest. If there is a plot in this book, I didn't grasp it, and the characters were too flat for me to be interested in.
Also I am once again confused about how people in the Mexican novels I've read make money. It's something that I pay a lot of attention to, unconsciously, and since this seems to be a pattern, I can't stop obsessing over it.
This has been on a my to-read list for a long time and I finally picked it up, fully expecting to be amazed and moved. I wasn't.
The time jumps were confusing and just felt kind of unnecessary. It was hard to tell which timeline we were following because they weren't very different from each other. The characters remained distant, expect for the anthropologist-widower, who explains his situation, thoughts, and feelings thoroughly.
I'm a very plot-driven reader and it takes a lot for a character-driven novel to hold my interest. If there is a plot in this book, I didn't grasp it, and the characters were too flat for me to be interested in.
Also I am once again confused about how people in the Mexican novels I've read make money. It's something that I pay a lot of attention to, unconsciously, and since this seems to be a pattern, I can't stop obsessing over it.