Publisher: Random House
Audio Publisher: Random House Audio, Pub Date: March 8, 2011
Release Date: March 8, 2011
Format: Hardcover/Audio
Pages: 352 (Hardcover)/ Listening Length: Unknown (9 discs)
Source: Library Loan
Genre: General Fiction
Review Date: July 2, 2012
Rating: 2 bookmarks
This book was one of our book club reads, thus I felt that I had to finish the book, no matter what. This book was added to our list because it was on many other suggested book club reading lists and it had generated a lot of buzz.
First let me say that the author, Tea Obreht does have the amazing skill of detailed description. Which can be both good and bad. I started off reading the hard cover book, but I was so bored with it after 50 pages that I gave up and picked up the audio version instead. I was hoping that the audio would peak my attention better...not so much. I ended up re-listening to chunks of it at a time because I found that sometimes after listening for 5 minutes or so, I'd stop and say "What did I just hear?"...so then I'd rewind it and listened again hoping to get something out of it the second time around. I wrestled with giving this either 1 or 2 bookmarks. This took me almost a month to get through and that is unheard of for me. I could only take it in small doses!
Audio Publisher: Random House Audio, Pub Date: March 8, 2011
Release Date: March 8, 2011
Format: Hardcover/Audio
Pages: 352 (Hardcover)/ Listening Length: Unknown (9 discs)
Source: Library Loan
Genre: General Fiction
Review Date: July 2, 2012
Rating: 2 bookmarks
This book was one of our book club reads, thus I felt that I had to finish the book, no matter what. This book was added to our list because it was on many other suggested book club reading lists and it had generated a lot of buzz.
First let me say that the author, Tea Obreht does have the amazing skill of detailed description. Which can be both good and bad. I started off reading the hard cover book, but I was so bored with it after 50 pages that I gave up and picked up the audio version instead. I was hoping that the audio would peak my attention better...not so much. I ended up re-listening to chunks of it at a time because I found that sometimes after listening for 5 minutes or so, I'd stop and say "What did I just hear?"...so then I'd rewind it and listened again hoping to get something out of it the second time around. I wrestled with giving this either 1 or 2 bookmarks. This took me almost a month to get through and that is unheard of for me. I could only take it in small doses!
My opinion is that if you enjoy books in the serious hard-core "literary" realm, then maybe this is your pace. If you're not into "literary", then this is not for you. Trust me on this. You'll need to love translating and dissecting every little piece of the story to get the most out of this book. Honestly, I enjoy a more obvious story. I like action, romance, surprises, twist and turns, cliff hangers, etc. This book had none of that and it was just too slow for me and reminds me of something I would read in an English Lit course.
Regarding the audio, it took a while for me to get used to the accent of the female narrator reading as Natalia. The man who read the grandfather had an intriguing voice and I did enjoy listening to the parts where her grandfather was telling a story. Her grandfather telling about the deathless man, Gavran Gaile, were the best parts for me.
If I had to sum up this book in one word it would be. unclear. This entire book was totally and utterly unclear to me. All of the mini folklore stories with in the book are disconnected and it was difficult to get a cohesive story out of it. I didn't really get the point of the story over all.
Happy Reading,
~Tamara~
Regarding the audio, it took a while for me to get used to the accent of the female narrator reading as Natalia. The man who read the grandfather had an intriguing voice and I did enjoy listening to the parts where her grandfather was telling a story. Her grandfather telling about the deathless man, Gavran Gaile, were the best parts for me.
If I had to sum up this book in one word it would be. unclear. This entire book was totally and utterly unclear to me. All of the mini folklore stories with in the book are disconnected and it was difficult to get a cohesive story out of it. I didn't really get the point of the story over all.
Happy Reading,
~Tamara~
