Karen H. (SashaFletch) reviewed A Very Intersting, Different Sort of Book on + 121 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I highly enjoyed this book by Nancy Huston. It was chosen by our Book Club so I don't know if I would have picked it up on my own. It is written backwards in time starting with a 6 year old boy, Sol, who lives in 2004. It goes back with each generation talking in the first person, back to World War II. So, next the hear from Sol's dad, Randall, at age 6 in 1982. The next person to emerge is his mother, Sadie, at the age of 6 in 1962. The last narrator to appear is Kristina at the age of 6 in 1944-45. As the reader learns more and more about this very disfunctional family, it emerges that there is a secret that has been kept throughout the years. We get glimpses of it, but we do not actually learn the whole truth until we read Kritina's section.
As you can see, the reader soon becomes fascinated with this style of writing - always from the perspective of a child and going back, back, back until all is finally exposed. What I particularly liked was the honesty and truthfulness of the child narrators. It is as if the author has a VERY good insight into the minds of children and of their silent suffering at the hands of cruel or indifferent adults or different parenting styles.
When I was done with this book, I thought it would be fun to read it again, this time knowing the whole history of the family back through the 60 years the book covers. I would have a whole new perspective and probably it would be a completely different book to read.
As you can see, the reader soon becomes fascinated with this style of writing - always from the perspective of a child and going back, back, back until all is finally exposed. What I particularly liked was the honesty and truthfulness of the child narrators. It is as if the author has a VERY good insight into the minds of children and of their silent suffering at the hands of cruel or indifferent adults or different parenting styles.
When I was done with this book, I thought it would be fun to read it again, this time knowing the whole history of the family back through the 60 years the book covers. I would have a whole new perspective and probably it would be a completely different book to read.
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