The Pope's Rhinoceros

by Lawrence Norfolk

The author of Lempriere's Dictionary, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of 1992, returns with a vivid, antic, and picaresque fictional tapestry reminiscent of The Name of the Rose which spins around one of history's most bizarre chapters: the 16th-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros for the amusement of Pope Leo X.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Italy, Literature, British Literature, Animals

592 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 1996

About the author

Lawrence Norfolk (born 1963) is a British novelist known for historical works with complex plots and intricate detail. His novels are also known for their unusually large vocabulary.

He was born in London but lived in Iraq until 1967 and then in the West Country of England. He read English at King's College London and graduated in 1986. He worked briefly as a teacher and later as a freelance writer for reference book publishers.

In 1992, he won the Somerset Maugham Award for his first novel, Lemprière's Dictionary, about events surrounding the publication, in 1788, of John Lemprière's Bibliotheca Classica on classical mythology and history.

His second novel, The Pope's Rhinoceros, is based on the history of an actual animal also known as Dürer's Rhinoceros. Themes in the work include the lost city of Vineta, the sack of Prato, and the Benin bronze-making culture on the river Niger.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence Norfolk is footloose and fancy free – he easily combines magic realism with postmodern posturing and the result is exotic and flowery and extravagant. History is literally turned into the grotesque and gory buffoonery, which it really was anyway – it just needed the one to see the fact in a proper light.

He would be counting the treasure they would raise. Estimating weights and loads, like their rehearsals in the pond. Organizing matters properly. That was still possible. But it was growing less and less possible with the passing minutes.

Treasure hunters, soldiers of fortune… But the true treasure is the language of the book and the true fortune is the author’s unbound imagination.

No, there’s no getting away from this slug. No escape. All assaults begin with a fatal misconception. You, we, they, he, she, it, and everyone else are not on the outside trying to get in, but actually on the inside and trying to get out.

The dumbfounding machinery of history wouldn't work without its minuscule screws and cogs.

[Tijana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svaka strana, ma svaka rečenica u knjizi je odlično napisana, samo ih ima previše. Previše u smislu da ovde ima građe za tri *cela* i ne obavezno povezana romana, plus okrajci. Pisca treba neka humana duša da upozna sa konceptima protagoniste, epizodiste i statiste, a posebno sa razlikama među njima.
Ako to izuzmemo: roman je odličan, Norfok je rešio da pokaže kako ume da vlada celim rasponom klavijature od burleske preko dvorskih intriga do užasa rata i magijskog realizma, i stvarno nam je pokazao, samo... hm... neće se svima dopasti sve tri knjige, eto. Na momente me je baš izluđivao, ali (ako izuzmemo sam početak) nije mi palo na pamet da je ostavim.
Dakle. Preporuka, ali uslovljena: ako spadate u nestrpljive, krenite od sto sedamdeset i neke strane i dela pod nazivom "Rim", bićete mi zahvalni. Nema na čemu.

[Antonio Nunez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Pope's Rhinoceros" has been called Lawrence Norfolk's second novel. I don't believe its value comes mainly from its novel-hood. Rather, it has some amazing, even mind-blowing scenes tied together by recurring characters, some of which are intriguing or amusing, some less so.
The storyline is not easy to summarize (the book is like a very rich cake that cannot hold it shape). The time is the high Renaissance (early XVI century). Niklot, our hero, an aboriginal native of the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea, barely survives lynching by crazed locals because of his heathenish rituals. Having escaped an attempt to drown him (his mother was not so lucky) he wanders through the Central German forests for several years, living as a wild-child. He is captured by a wandering band of fraudsters who make a living by pretending to be retreating soldiers. Eventually the villagers of a town they intended to swindle turn on them, and turn them over to a real army, the Spanish one. Niklot, now named Salvestro, is befriended by a dim-witted giant (Bernardo) and by an older soldier, Groot. All take part in the attempted siege of the town of Prato, conducted by the Spaniards on behalf of the head of the Medici family, the youthful Cardinal Giovanni de Medicis, son of Lorenzo de Magnificent. For some unnamed reason (as is common throughout the book) the Cardinal pretends to accept Prato's surrender through an agreement with the city's bigwig, Aldo Tebaldi, but in reality allows the city to be plundered by the Spanish troops, and everything ends in an orgy of raping and murder that eventually extends to Tebaldi's family, who were being guarded by Salvestro, Bernardo and Groot (headed by a Spaniard named Colonel Diego). The Cardinal attempts to blame Salvestro et alii for the Tebaldi family massacre, but our hero and Bernardo manage to escape led by one of the more appealing characters in the book, a young proto-witch named Amalia. Colonel Diego and Groot are blamed for the escape of the supposed "murderers", and are dishonored. Salvestro leads Bernardo back to Usedom in an attempt to recoup their fortune by fishing out a treasure that was supposedly buried at the bottom of the sea when the heathen city of Vineta (located on a small peninsula off the coast of Usedom) sank during Henry the Lion's attempted siege over two hundred years before. The attempt fails miserably, and the villagers again try to kill Salvestro, whom they recognize as Niklot. Both Salvestro and Bernardo are saved by an order of monks, whose monastery is collapsing into the sea. Brother Joerg convinces Salvestro to lead them to Rome, where they will obtain some unnamed type of help in the rebuilding of their monastery (money? architects? who knows?). Salvestro obliges but Rome does not welcome the monks or their guides. The former Cardinal de Medicis, now crowned as Pope Leo X is not interested in anything as pedestrian as monks and monasteries, but is only concerned with obtaining a rhinoceros, which he hopes will fight with elephant Hanno, donated to him by the Portuguese King Manoel. So the Usedom monks scatter, some becoming builders, some vagrants, and father Joerg is eventually left almost alone as he tries to obtain an audience with the Pope for months and months. Meanwhile, Salvestro and Bernardo (along with their former enemy, colonel Diego) are forced to sign up on a doomed voyage to Africa (guided by an African princess whom they found living as a slave to a high-class prostitute in Rome) to fetch a rhino for His Holiness. The voyage and adventures in Africa (not perhaps the best rendered part of the book)are partially successful, in that they manage to bring the beast back, but dead due to a shipwreck off the coast of La Spezia. The Pope, grateful even for a dead Rhino, confers to Salvestro any wish he might choose to express. He expresses a wish to hear the Pope's confession, which refers to His Holiness's shameful actions during the Prato campaign. Then Salvestro, brother Joerg and another monk returh to Usedom, where Salvestro is finally murdered by the locals.

The book, as has been hinted is very uneven. Many scenes are memorable for a sort of nightmarish quality and exageration that is sometimes worthy of Rabelais: a feast in a Roman Church during which several live animals are torn apart and devoured by the parishioners, a poetical competition on a flooded stadium (naumachia), a hunting party led by Pope Leo, the crass jokes of Cardinals Bibbiena and Dovizio (historical characters), a concert by ur-punk band, King Caspar and the Mauritians. The description of a Roman potentate's labyrinthine palace is not short of Eco's library in "The Name of The Rose". The elaborate rendition of the life of a colony of rats, or the routine in the Papal kitchens, are nauseating but beguiling, and again not short of Patrick Suesskind's masterful "Perfume".

Some things work less well. The character of Brother Joerg is inconsistent. At the beginning he is a forceful geography teacher, but then he becomes a virtual blind and mute wreck who allows his flock to be dispersed and eventually lost. The rivalry between Portuguese and Spaniards over the division of the globe between the two naval powers is not clarified, and it could be without loss to the plot. The efficient killer Rufo is left hanging (he wanders off page about two thirds of the book and never turns up again). As noted above, the portions that take place aboard ships, or in Goa or Africa are not as interesting as those that occur in Europe, and neither are the characters or the episodes featured. I couldn't see why the Usedom monastery wasn't rebuilt, why bullying monk Gerhardt did not get his comeuppance (unlike Groot, who got his to the hilt), and why Salvestro returned to get slaughtered. Or, indeed, why the hugely likeable Bernardo was not allowed to join a wandering troupe of dwarfs as the mandatory giant, as seemed his destiny at some point.

So why do I give this book four stars? Because the good parts are very good, and the bad parts are much better than the good parts of other books I've read recently. Because many of the characters are unforgettable. Amalia and Bernardo are both excellent, and the Pope is masterful, along with his cohort of drunken cardinals and cynical minor bureaucrats. The demented noble Roman Colonna is formidable, and the S-M red-headed goddess, La Cavallerizza Sanguinosa has an undefined role but always manages to make a splash when she turns up. Norfolk is a man with a tough stomach, who knows his story, and is not afraid of the baroque. Minimalism has its uses, but historical fiction is not one of them.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique book that defies categorisation, this is a huge, surreal, complex, all-encompassing sixteenth century picaresque shaggy dog (or should I say rhinoceros) story full of humour, complex plot twists, period detail and arcane vocabulary, ranging from the Baltic coastal island of Usedom via Rome to West Africa and back, taking in large chunks of history, geography, geology, papal politics and many other subjects.

Not an easy read, particularly the opening which spends several pages explaining the geological evolution of the Baltic in almost wilfully obscure language, but ultimately a rewarding one, and an impressive feat of research and imagination.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is not a quick read. You have to really dig in and grit your teeth. "Dense" and "erudite" are spot-on, being full of historical and quotable goodies. He's definitely thorough, he loves his history and it shows.

He's also not afraid of viscera, doling it out in heaps. Norfolk's Renaissance is rank, ripe, fluid, unforgiving and peopled that's for damn sure. Yeah, it's gross by 21rst-century sanitary standards, plodding and belaboring the natural human fluids and excretions, but fine--it brings the narrative that much closer to you, engrosses you, so to speak (bad dum bum). Human beings stink and their bodies excret. There's nothing wrong with fiction being real--I too like my coffee black.

I'll admit I skim when I feel he's wandering too far afield setting the stage. But still, wading through the outlying setting to the narrative makes the story that much more tactile and rewarding. Just keep a dictionary handy, and trust when he uses a thousand-dollar word. I think he knows what he's doing, at least in this context. The journey he describes wouldn't have been digestible in two hours worth of video-editing, so why should it read like it might have?

[Bruce Marsland · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up. This novel has been a trusty paperweight and book-end for a few years now. The bookmark has moved forward a few pages at irregular intervals. Usually, each dip into the text puts me off reading for a while. I get the impression that the author consulted a thesaurus twice for every sentence on every one of the 753 pages. Perhaps literary reviewers enjoy this sort of book, as it gives them the chance to demonstrate how clever they are. But it's not for me. Enough is enough. There are other things to do in life.

[Ana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ui, como me custou terminar este livro! Se houve partes do livro que gostei de ler, outras eram realmente intragáveis e esta falta de homogeneidade foi uma coisa que me surpreendeu e desapontou, depois de um início bastante auspicioso. Fiquei com a ideia que o autor é muito bom a fazer descrições de paisagens e ambientes, mas confuso, para não dizer caótico, na delineação do enredo geral. Várias vezes dei comigo a pensar "mas o que é que isto tudo tem a ver com a porcaria do rinoceronte?". Pior do que isso, foram passagens enormes e personagens que se sucediam uns aos outros sem que, pelo menos para mim, adicionassem nada à história, e acontecimentos e diálogos sem nexo nenhum. Enfim, é um daqueles livros que nos faz sentir um bocado estúpidos por, frequentemente, não estarmos a perceber nada do que estamos a ler. Muito irritante. Decididamente, tenho que ultrapassar este meu defeito de me custar tanto deixar a meio um livro que já comecei...

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this book, but forced myself to finish it, as it was the first book I bought for my Kindle. Norfolk's narrative is undeniably exciting, challenging and polychromatic. He delights in exploring the perspectives of non-human characters and in rich vocabulary. Having said that, Rhino is deeply unfriendly to the reader. I found it very difficult to keep up with what was going on, partly because of the swirling, circling nature of the narrative, but also because I cared very little about any of the characters. If Norfolk could combine his genuinely impressive powers of description and his originality with a decent plot and more engaging characters, that book would be a masterpiece.

[Lukas Van Veen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too flowery and long winded....

[Valentina Vekovishcheva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is undoubtedly one of the best books ever. Sort of a highlight of my life, if I can put it this way

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of us dream and have nightmares. Sometimes a nightmare so luring, it might just be the salvation from the reality.

“And Vineta is still there,” he murmured, “with all its temples and their treasure. …”
And its people, too, his mother had said. Our people. When the water was clear, she told him, you might see them walking in the watery streets. Svantovit was down there with them. He could not save them, but neither could he desert them.

Cold waters of the North, scorching Italian sun, changing sea winds and a flow of the great river create a fitting background for a story, slowly unraveling before your eyes. The story of a lost and still to be forgotten underwater city, of a boy, frightened and fighting for his life, of powerful men and cunning women, of betrayal and hope.

It is not a straightforward plotline and you’d certainly have to wait for any real action to start. Prepare to be drawn away from the main events to see the sights (and there are plenty). Human life in the eyes of herring, dawn in XVI century Rome, Borgo rats fighting in the palace corridors, a real gargantuan feast, and many more small vignettes intertwined within the book, giving it a perfect baroque feel.

The world of The Pope’s Rhinoceros has no heroes, or rather it has many, yet unlikely. Those are people playing the game against all odds, having agreed with the rules and following their own moral code (however ambiguous it might seem). Mercenaries, adventurers, politicians, and soldiers steadily go beyond the point of no return, and the world goes by.

Verdict: The Pope’s Rhinoceros is a must-read for anyone who savours words and enjoys a big complex book every now and then.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quickly decided I didn't want to plow through its 600 densely printed and--more important--densely written pages.

[SnezhArt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Уважительный поклон Норфолка в сторону Рабле.

[Liam Ostermann]

Begun but not finished so to read again - a fascinating wonderful novel.

[Nordpirat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretentious. To say the least.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The highly acclaimed author of Lempriere's Dictionary ... returns with a vivid, antic, and picaresque novel spun around one of history's most bizarre chapters: the sixteenth-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros as a bribe for Pope Leo X. Set in an age of global expansion, The Pope's Rhinoceros hold up the history of the rhinoceros as a mirror to the obsessions and corrupt fantasies of the Renaissance.

"In February 1516, a Portuguese ship sank off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora de Ajuda had sailed 14,000 miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to bribe the 'pleasure-loving Pope' into favoring expansionist Portugal over her rival Spain with the most exotic and least likely of gifts -- a living rhinoceros.

This strange incident is the germ of truth within the unfettered fantasy of Lawrence Norfolk's intricately plotted, marvelously detailed, seductively intriguing second novel -- a triumph of storytelling that is as arcane and erudite as it is compelling and entertaining. Moving from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to the West African rainforest, with a cast of characters including a resourceful ex-mercenary, Salvestro; his dim-witted comrade, Bernardo; an order of reclusive monks; and Rome's corrupt cardinals, courtesans, ambassadors, and nobles, The Pope's Rhinoceros is at once a fabulous adventure tale and a portrait of an age rushing headlong to its crisis."
~~front flap

I got to page 87. Out of 574 pages. This book is indeed detailed and intricately plotted, told in arcane and erudite language. By page 87, we hadn't come anywhere near the rhinoceros, or Portugal, or the West African rainforest -- we were still in the herring colonies, and not much had happened. Nor was there any hint of anything that was going to happen, either.

Normally I love books with lush, compelling language, written by a master wordsmith. But this one was just too much for me. It was turgid reading -- every word of every convoluted sentence had to be read, or the thread was lost. And even then, I felt as though I was wandering in a morass, in a maze or labyrinth with no discernible destination.

Bah! I've too many other books to read to spend so much time flailing through one book.

[James Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book . . .

I read this book for the first time when it came out over twenty year ago. I was a young man — though not quite as young as it the extraordinarily erudite author — and had never been to Rome. I knew nothing about Pope Leo X or Hanno the elephant, and virtually nothing about Medicis in general. I knew very little about the competing claims of the the Portuguese and the Spanish arising from their voyages of discovery and conquest or of their brutal treatment of those unlucky enough meet them in the places to which they travelled. I didn’t know a thing about Nri. The vocabulary was over my head. But I loved the book, though I didn’t understand it. I just loved the two poor clowns who were, along with a little girl in white, the heart of the story.

I just re-read it. I am on the verge of retirement and frequently travel to Rome. Over the years I have read many books about Pope Leo and the Medicis, the Portuguese and the Spanish, about places such as Nri, and even the late Sylvia Bedini’s charming book about Hanno the elephant himself. And certainly this time I enjoyed much more of the humor and got a lot of pleasure out of following the bulk of the allusions. But what I loved about the book again, and even more this time, were the two poor clowns who wander the world in search of just a little bit of a break, and, perhaps because now the characters seem so young, I felt for them even more. And the image of poor, brave, lonely, hapless Salvestro following his immaculate little friend in white will stick with me for a long time. If I live long enough to be old, I hope I get to read it again to see how I feel about the character as an old man; they really resonate with me in a way that few fictional characters ever have. I have read critics who praise Norfolk’s power of description but criticize his character development; I don’t agree with them. At first blush, Salvestro and Bernardo come across as no more than a Renaissance version of George and Lenny, but by the end of the book Salvestro is one of the most well-developed, memorable heroes I have ever encountered.

[Brent Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Distinctive in style and content, this is a really big, shaggy dog of a book. The prose is dense, mostly erudite, and often intentionally obfuscated, leading down numerous holes, not all of which can be easily gotten out of. In the 1500’s, Pope Leo (who is, big surprise, far less than pious) gets his kicks watching the antics of large, exotic animals, which he likes to collect. Now he wants to see a rhino fight an elephant. The elephant he has already, living with him in Rome; the rhino, rumoured to exist anyhow, eater of virgins down in Africa, he needs. Sycophants plot and trip over themselves arranging to get him one of the Beasts stet. A couple of oblivious n’er do wells, a giant and a witch's son, whom we've followed into town with a troupe of misplaced monks, whose church has just crumbled off a cliff on a faraway German island, are enlisted to retrieve one of the creatures. Scenes cut through time and place, liberally doused with post-modern flourishes, omniscient observations, and current sensibilities ('punk-baroque' is what's quoted on the back cover of this edition, and that seems pretty apt). Narrators are generally unreliable and their identities withheld well into each section-- and there are multitudes of these, not all of them human. A decided nastiness in places, lots of shit and gore, cruder streaks, even a goofiness to the story at times. The detail is always meticulous, even if superfluous. I can see how many cry for an editor, or cohesion, or a stronger sense imposed, but (those accusations ringing pretty familiar to me), I really liked granular, smart chaos, digressions, and the 'over-written' commitment.

[verbava · Rating 5 out of 5]

п'ять зірочок, хоч я не зовсім певна, чи до кінця зрозуміла, що тут відбулося (втім, і за це теж – текст такий розкішний і багатий, що з нього довго можна виловлювати все нові деталі й події).
"носоріг для папи" – то книжка для вдумливого, але безупинного читання, стільки там важливих дрібничок, підказок, натяків. є купа речей, яких норфолк не вербалізує, а ще більше тих, які відштовхуються від основ, набудованих двісті сторінок тому. усе воно – імена, місця, події, наміри і вчинки – зрештою складається в цілісну картину, але так, що сфокусуватися можна тільки на частині її; переводиш погляд – і попередній фрагмент затуманюється.
одна з найліпших речей у романі – те, як норфолк вкидає читача в текст, не потурбувавшись познайомити з персонажами (зате йому подобається знайомити з хронотопами – текст розпочинається ще до льодовикового періоду й за кількадесят сторінок заходить у середньовіччя) чи пояснити, що відбувається. відчуття таке, ніби справді опиняєшся в незнайомому місці серед незнайомих людей і тільки з того, як вони поводяться та що кажуть, можеш робити якісь висновки. всевидющий третьоосібний наратор є, але його значно більше цікавлять мотиви щурів чи риб, аніж людей: він не опускається до того, щоби препарувати персонажів.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had been bowled over by Norfolk's Lemprière's Dictionary when I read it a decade or ago but this Pynchonesque, picaresque follow up, while containing many of the ingredients I like in a novel, was a disappointment and a slog in the main. The issue is that the book's sections are uneven - the opener that sees monks battle to keep their monastery from sliding into the Baltic is stirring and very reminiscent of The Name of the Rose - one can imagine The Beloved's The Sun Rising as a soundtrack - while two episodes on board ship are gripping in the way that waterborne narratives tend to be.

But a woefully under-edited central section detailing papal and political intrigue in the middle of the book is seemingly never ending and a penultimate story where the cast is exiled to the jungles of west Africa is profoundly unsatisfying. I like my prose flowery and Norfolk can write superbly but by the end my mind was drifting off to which other celebs are named after counties rather than concentrating on the task at hand - David Essex, Olly Lancashire, David Gwent....

[Misty Gardner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't often give up on a book but I did with this. I was given the book some time ago (chiefly, I suspect, for the title) and thought I would give it a go. It is a substantial tome - over 600 densely-written pages - but I am usually OK with that. However, after half a dozen pages describing the geological evolution of the area where the saga starts, I was tempted to give up. I re-read the precis on the back cover and thought I would try again. I managed about 20 further pages which looked more promising but, on picking it up again the following day very quickly decided that I would probably not live long enough to finish it and that there are many other books I would rather read. Not for me!

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me forever to get through this book. Not because it is awful, but because the author's style is very dense. What I can describe using three or four words, he uses fifteen.
Pope Leo X owns an elephant, and wants a rarer beast, a rhinoceros. No one knows what it looks like, but the Spanish and the Portuguese are vying with each other to deliver one and gain the favor of this Pope. The life story of one man, Salvestro, is woven in and around the finding of this beast. Herring and especially rats are rampant.
This novel is sometimes amusing, sometimes surprising, one small section that springs to mind was rather boring to me, but it was worth it.

[Mia Rendix · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Read" is too generous - I didn't finish this monstrous novel. It was forced upon me by my boss and she didn't finish it as well: But my despair/hatred is based on my aversions rather than literary quality. I really do not like this kind of fictional history with a male protagonist's endless odyssee sprinkled with war, religious bigottery, male bonding, violence etc. written in excessively colorful language - and on top of that we have one of those novels where females are reduced to two functions: Rape victims or prostitutes.

[Alejandrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on page 5. "This strange and gentle sea, reed-fringed and resting on a granite cradle still rocking in the aftermath of ice, dotted with islands and bounded with stony northern coasts, fed by melted snow and rainwater, almost enclosed behind the jut of the peninsula, yet appears almost lacustrine, an outbreak of water arrested at the edge of the ocean, frozen in the moment of joining".

Prose is SO tight, it would take a monumental effort to get through the 574 pages. Others may enjoy the effort, I am sorry to declare a loss but moving on.

[Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buried inside this tome there almost certainly lies a good novel or three. The concetration required to extract it from the shifts in time and place, and from an almost endless introduction of new and questionably relevent characters, all amidst poetic albeit self-indulgent deviations, was, I afraid to say, too much for me.
Norfolk is a very good writer and perhaps something more tightly written - and shorter - would have provided a better introduction.

[Terry Pearce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this. There were some really smart ideas, and the man can obviously turn some delicious prose. But it just felt like too much hard slog for not quite enough reward for me. The density just made it feel too much like work and not enough like pleasure, so, worthy as I'm sure it is, I gave up.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally gave up on this book. I did get about half way through. It had lots of ingredients I love, complexity, some magic realism, history, and excellent prose. But, almost no character development or continuity. In the end, there wasn't enough to care about.

[Andrew Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unengaging verbose, convoluted, uninteresting. Why did I bother after Lempriere's Dcitionary ? Never managed to finish it.

[Verena · Rating 1 out of 5]

stopped reading after 19 unbearable pages. Way too tacky and oldfashioned in a not-good-way.

[Carl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved this book 20 years ago. Now I couldn't get through it. We change.