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airdog

fossilfranv@good.franv.site

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

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The Fifth Gospel (AudiobookFormat, 2015, Simon & Schuster Audio) 2 stars

The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell is a literary thriller that takes place in 2004 …

Maybe for religious people...

2 stars

I'm pretty sure it's not because I'm an atheist, but this work, that apparently the author worked on for 10 years, to me appeared to be a monumental waste of time. The work is long (500 pages) and the meager intrigue is plagued by incessant repetitions and flashbacks into the past that just weigh down the pace of the action and let you feel, after 100 pages or so, that this is going nowhere. I was stupid enough, awaiting an incredible revelation, to read to the end, and believe me, this is going nowhere...

The Rope Artist 2 stars

The aftermath of the murder of a bondage teacher reveals the darkest corners of the …

A manga in words only

2 stars

Curious book where the narrator changes at about half the work. Lots of details where the narrators remember their past and solutions somehow, magically, appear out of nowhere.

I really had the feeling I was reading a manga without the images.

Not very sure how I cam by this book but once began I was intrigued, more by the style than by the plot itself...

Tomás Nevinson (2023, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Knopf) 3 stars

Spain in the 1990s is beset by a simmering campaign of terror from Basque separatists …

Philosophical thriller

3 stars

It's quite strange to read. Nothing is more at the opposite of a thriller than philosophy. The result is weird, for instance there's a scene where he begins to kill her and that scene takes about 10 pages. The result being, of course, that before she actually dies he changes his mind. The sentences are very often as long as in a Proust writing which, you have to admit can certainly slow down dramatically the pace of the action. Yet the author obviously has a vast culture, citing authors from antiquity to modern times. And it's long, very long, about 700 pages. Not sure yet, probably will read another work by this author who apparently is well known internationally before posing a more assured verdict as to what I think.

The Body Lies (2019, Alfred A. Knopf) 4 stars

When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote English countryside, …

Interesting read

4 stars

Many English writers from the UK dig into the language to discover or re-discover words that are not used everyday but are nevertheless sometimes interesting, sometimes charming but always give more color to the narrative. Jo Blake is one of those and she succeeds well in creating a world in which you feel engulfed and included. With time it becomes a bit too much, as drinking something very sweet our sour can overwhelm after a little bit. I nevertheless enjoyed this book and am going to read other works by her. To give you a vague idea, allow me a quote from this book:" to a little park, where a brass band was parping out that particularly northern brand of nostalgia between borders planted with primulas and daffodils and hyacinths. Kids darted round on scooters, wobbled on small bikes. Dogs dragged old ladies after them."

Sparrow 2 stars

Told from the perspective of an enslaved boy being raised in a Roman brothel, a …

Seems to have done quite a bit or research

2 stars

That's about all I can say of this book. No great dramas or surprises in this book, lots of interesting details about life at the time, But all this is written in some kind of monotone unrolling of the life of this child slave. It's difficult to get attached to anyone and it's like reading a daily diary of someone esle's life.

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World (2007) 2 stars

From the award-winning author of The Shell Collector and About Grace comes an evocative memoir …

Expected more from the author of All the Light We Cannot See

2 stars

Same style that gives you the feeling of following a child discovering the world, scattering left and right beautiful and interesting insights. But not the same result. All the Lights was set during WWII and we were following the lives of two pre-teens dealing with the chaos around them and managing to find beauty nevertheless. In Four Seasons he's telling his own story of a 1 year trip in Rome. Insights are thrown around, beauty appears in a city that's a mess but the drama is not there.
It's a long novel (as was All the Lights) but halway through I found myself wondering if I really cared that much for one of his twins making his first steps or about the funeral ("biggest in the world") of pope John Paul II. No drama, no tension, just everyday life. For me it became annoying very fast and I quickly felt …

reviewed Soeurs by Bernard Minier

Soeurs 4 stars

Mai 1993. Deux sœurs, Alice, 20 ans, et Ambre, 21 ans, sont retrouvées mortes en …

Très bon livre

4 stars

C’est avec grand plaisir que j’ai lu ce livre, le premier que je lis de cet auteur: L’écriture est un peu longue avec beaucoup de descriptions mais il se rattrape par surprises accumulées à la fin (quoique quelque peu prévisibles): Bref je vais sans doute lire au moins une autre oeuvre de cet auteur (de nombreuses notes en bas de page se réfèrent aux précédents ouvrages):

reviewed Jar city by Arnaldur Indriðason

Jar city (2005) 3 stars

Jar City, also known as Tainted Blood (Icelandic: Mýrin, "The Bog") ( listen ), is …

Good but not earth shattering

3 stars

Reading this work after 1991 makes me realise again how relative everything is. Had I read this one after a bad book I might very well had given it 3 stars but after reading a very good book this one pales in comparison. As said somewhat well written, but the writing gets lost in so many details about the rooms, the apartments and personal lives that seem to have no relationship to the story and don't add anything the result being that it takes away much more than it adds.

reviewed 1991 by Franck Thilliez

1991 (French language, Fleuve noir) 4 stars

En décembre 1991, quand Franck Sharko, tout juste sorti de l'école des inspecteurs, débarque au …

Un thriller d'une logique claire, cartesienne tres bien ecrit.

4 stars

J'avais deja lu un autre ouvrage du meme auteur qui m'avait impressione par sa qualite d'ecriture. Celui-ci est encore meilleur. L'auteur recherche toujours le meteriel de ses romans et monte des scenarios toujours riches en contenu.

reviewed The Bat by Jo Nesbo

Good thing it was published only recently

2 stars

Probably one of his first books, it's the first of the Hary Hole series, this books gives us a taste of what his writing looked at when Nesbo was starting.
It feels again like one of those paint by numbers paintings. The author seems to have taken a handbook on how to write a thriller and followed it, adding here and there a few insinghts. When he feels that the writing is too short, he inserts long passages that seem to be taken from books about Australia (the action is in that country), and when it's still too short for his tastte he inserts reminiscences about Hary's past that makes the reader wonder what is this doing here. Not a good book, the writing of a beginner. Not sure if that was the first work I had read by him I would have read more.

Midnight News (2023, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Knopf) 3 stars

It is 1940 and twenty-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her attic window as enemy planes …

A bit long at the beginning but turns out not bad at all

3 stars

For the first 100 pages or so I thought this girl is off her rocker but then it gets more precise and turns out she was quite logical. Written in English as it was spoken during WWII which makes for a nice reading.

The child (2018) 2 stars

Als bij opgravingen een skelet van een baby wordt gevonden, blijkt het het kindje te …

Very long first 3/4 but surprising end

2 stars

I'm not sure how and why I read this book to the end. As mentioned the first part of the book is long and boring, written a la Agatha Christie but without the logical reasoning with lots of statements such as "Oh my God, you must feel devastated!" and the like.

But the end somehow rescues the whole thing with a several very original plot twists. Not sure it was worth the long read for that though...