Helpful Score: 2
My preference is a novel written in the first person, but once into this story I enjoyed the authors script. The story itself was fascinating. It is difficult to tell at the beginning where the story is going, but I found the characters fun and mysterious so I was able to stick with it. I was surprised at the turn the story took, tying everything together. But it wasnt until the end that it all made sense, or most of it anyway. Told by the man that was once a young boy, flash forwards, I guess you would call them, to the present time made an interesting point of view and perspective. I would recommend this book to others, but it may not be the type of prose for everyone.
Helpful Score: 1
Story of 11-year-old Michael and his two friends and their adventures (mostly unsupervised) on a three-week voyage from Sri Lanka to England in the 1950s. Much like the voyage, the novel takes a long time to get to the dramatic moment that is hinted at. Liked it, didn't love it.
Helpful Score: 1
The most powerful feature of this book for me is how poetic the language is. The lyricism of it, the almost dreamy quality of the narrative make this novel an experience of poetry in prose and the character's voyages throughout the book only become richer for it.
The novel's protagonist, Michael, tells the reader about the trip that changed his life both literally and figuratively when he was only 11 years old, although I didn't get a feeling that it was a journey of self-discovery in any sense. The boy simply experiences the adventures of the voyage and the adult reminisces about them and the events that followed, in a way wrapping things up for the characters, telling the reader where they ended up and how. Curiously enough the adult Michael is a writer, and Ondaatje himself arrived in England from Colombo when he was 11 on a ship called the Oronsay, just like the boy in the novel does. There is some speculation about whether the novel is autobiographical in a lot of ways and although the author hasn't confirmed or denied this I am inclined to believe that it is indeed autobiographical, however fictionalized and dramatized, especially in terms of a child experiencing life without direct adult influence and an adult fully understanding the real impact and meaning of those childhood experiences.
Michael's story is intertwined with stories of other passengers, many of whom aren't who they seem to be at first and whose presence makes for a multi-layered narrative. This reminded me of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who employs a similar story-within-a-story structure, and if you've been following the blog you'll remember that I enjoyed that book a lot. My favorite story-in-a-story was that of Miss Lasqueti, I found it even more touching and fascinating than that of the prisoner. Possibly that's because it is more subtle, there is no life or death drama and secrets in it, yet it got to me and made me think about the events of Miss Lasqueti's life and their undeniable effects.
There is quite a bit of jumping back and forth in time so if you usually have trouble with that - be prepared. It wasn't a problem for me at all, I actually enjoyed it because it gave the story a more mature feeling, clarified in a way why the 11-year-old protagonist didn't seem exactly pre-teen. After all it is an adult looking back through time at the child, reliving the experiences through the memories, offering insight that he wouldn't have had all those years ago.
This was one of the books I listened to as opposed to reading, and although having the author do the narration was very special because I knew that the intonations, pauses and pronunciations were done exactly as intended I think this is a book that should be read, be that on paper or eReader, especially if you are a person whose visual perception is better than audio perception. As I've mentioned before the writing is extremely beautiful and if you look up quotes from this book online you'll see exactly what I mean. I myself will be picking up this book again, this time soaking it all in from the page.
The novel's protagonist, Michael, tells the reader about the trip that changed his life both literally and figuratively when he was only 11 years old, although I didn't get a feeling that it was a journey of self-discovery in any sense. The boy simply experiences the adventures of the voyage and the adult reminisces about them and the events that followed, in a way wrapping things up for the characters, telling the reader where they ended up and how. Curiously enough the adult Michael is a writer, and Ondaatje himself arrived in England from Colombo when he was 11 on a ship called the Oronsay, just like the boy in the novel does. There is some speculation about whether the novel is autobiographical in a lot of ways and although the author hasn't confirmed or denied this I am inclined to believe that it is indeed autobiographical, however fictionalized and dramatized, especially in terms of a child experiencing life without direct adult influence and an adult fully understanding the real impact and meaning of those childhood experiences.
Michael's story is intertwined with stories of other passengers, many of whom aren't who they seem to be at first and whose presence makes for a multi-layered narrative. This reminded me of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who employs a similar story-within-a-story structure, and if you've been following the blog you'll remember that I enjoyed that book a lot. My favorite story-in-a-story was that of Miss Lasqueti, I found it even more touching and fascinating than that of the prisoner. Possibly that's because it is more subtle, there is no life or death drama and secrets in it, yet it got to me and made me think about the events of Miss Lasqueti's life and their undeniable effects.
There is quite a bit of jumping back and forth in time so if you usually have trouble with that - be prepared. It wasn't a problem for me at all, I actually enjoyed it because it gave the story a more mature feeling, clarified in a way why the 11-year-old protagonist didn't seem exactly pre-teen. After all it is an adult looking back through time at the child, reliving the experiences through the memories, offering insight that he wouldn't have had all those years ago.
This was one of the books I listened to as opposed to reading, and although having the author do the narration was very special because I knew that the intonations, pauses and pronunciations were done exactly as intended I think this is a book that should be read, be that on paper or eReader, especially if you are a person whose visual perception is better than audio perception. As I've mentioned before the writing is extremely beautiful and if you look up quotes from this book online you'll see exactly what I mean. I myself will be picking up this book again, this time soaking it all in from the page.
Helpful Score: 1
This book is definitely a character-driven book instead of a plot driven book. Therefore, I was not too impressed. The ending is also somewhat lackluster. I did finish it, however, which means that it must have held my interest at least somewhat. If you prefer character-driven over plot-driven, then you may like it. Author says that it's fiction, however, I believe it is very much based on his own life.
Perhaps I'm just not clever enough to understand this book. At the start, I knew where it was going. Then it just kept jumping all over the place. Characters backstories took up so many pages, I found myself skipping along, catching up the ship later on, but it was not later on. The voyage was supposed to be three weeks, it felt longer to me. I'm still not sure what happened to the prisoner, or the other passengers. Some reviews raved about this book, I can only give it a shoulder shrug and meh.
An interesting tangle of people and realationships. I enjoyed the book.
I liked this book, especially since many years ago, as a young adult, I sailed under similar circumstances from South Africa to London. However, my voyage took five weeks on a cargo/passenger vessel, but the characters of passengers and events are comparable, despite occurring a few years later.
I only gave this book 3 stars because I felt it did not hold my attention. I was finally able to finish it. I felt some of the characters were not really necessary for the plot line and others stories needed to be expanded to make the novel more interesting.
