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Μέχρι πριν από λίγες εβδομάδες ο Τζέικ Μίσκιν ήταν φιλήσυχος δικηγόρος, ειδικευμένος σε θέματα πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας. Τώρα, από στιγμή σε στιγμή, περιμένει τους πληρωμένους δολοφόνους που έρχονται να τον σκοτώσουν...
Όλα αρχίζουν με μια πυρκαγιά σ' ένα παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο της Νέας Υόρκης. Ανάμεσα στ' αποκαΐδια, κρυμμένα σ' ένα μισοκατεστραμμένο τόμο, ανακαλύπτονται τα γράμματα ενός Βρετανού κατασκόπου του 17ου αιώνα. Κάποιες σελίδες τους είναι κρυπτογραφημένες και το κλειδί της αποκρυπτογράφησής τους έχει χαθεί εδώ και τετρακόσια χρόνια. Αν όμως βρεθεί, μπορεί να οδηγήσει σ' έναν από τους πιο ανεκτίμητους θησαυρούς της Ιστορίας. Ο Τζέικ μπλέκεται στην υπόθεση χωρίς να το πολυσκεφτεί. Αλλά σύντομα ανακαλύπτει πως δεν είναι μόνος. Λόγιοι, συλλέκτες, Ρώσοι μαφιόζοι, γοητευτικές γυναίκες, όλοι θα έκαναν τα πάντα για να αποκτήσουν το θησαυρό. Κι αυτό που ξεκίνησε σαν ένα συναρπαστικό αίνιγμα εξελίσσεται σε μια θανάσιμη αναμέτρηση, όπου κανείς δεν είναι αυτό που δείχνει και ο σκοπός αγιάζει όλα τα μέσα - ακόμη και το φόνο...
Όλα αρχίζουν με μια πυρκαγιά σ' ένα παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο της Νέας Υόρκης. Ανάμεσα στ' αποκαΐδια, κρυμμένα σ' ένα μισοκατεστραμμένο τόμο, ανακαλύπτονται τα γράμματα ενός Βρετανού κατασκόπου του 17ου αιώνα. Κάποιες σελίδες τους είναι κρυπτογραφημένες και το κλειδί της αποκρυπτογράφησής τους έχει χαθεί εδώ και τετρακόσια χρόνια. Αν όμως βρεθεί, μπορεί να οδηγήσει σ' έναν από τους πιο ανεκτίμητους θησαυρούς της Ιστορίας. Ο Τζέικ μπλέκεται στην υπόθεση χωρίς να το πολυσκεφτεί. Αλλά σύντομα ανακαλύπτει πως δεν είναι μόνος. Λόγιοι, συλλέκτες, Ρώσοι μαφιόζοι, γοητευτικές γυναίκες, όλοι θα έκαναν τα πάντα για να αποκτήσουν το θησαυρό. Κι αυτό που ξεκίνησε σαν ένα συναρπαστικό αίνιγμα εξελίσσεται σε μια θανάσιμη αναμέτρηση, όπου κανείς δεν είναι αυτό που δείχνει και ο σκοπός αγιάζει όλα τα μέσα - ακόμη και το φόνο...
560 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 27, 2007
527 people are currently reading
6818 people want to read
About the author
Michael Gruber
43 books310 followersMichael Gruber is an author living in Seattle, Washington. He attended Columbia University and received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Miami. He worked as a cook, a marine biologist, a speech writer, a policy advisor for the Jimmy Carter White House, and a bureaucrat for the EPA before becoming a novelist.
He is generally acknowledged to be the ghostwriter of the popular Robert K. Tanenbaum series of Butch Karp novels starting with No Lesser Plea and ending with Resolved. After the partnership with Tanenbaum ended, Gruber began publishing his own novels under William Morrow and HarperCollins.
Gruber's "Jimmy Paz" trilogy, while critically acclaimed, did not sell at the same levels as the Butch Karp series in the United States. The Book of Air and Shadows became a national bestseller shortly after its release in March of 2007, however.
Series:
* Jimmy Paz
He is generally acknowledged to be the ghostwriter of the popular Robert K. Tanenbaum series of Butch Karp novels starting with No Lesser Plea and ending with Resolved. After the partnership with Tanenbaum ended, Gruber began publishing his own novels under William Morrow and HarperCollins.
Gruber's "Jimmy Paz" trilogy, while critically acclaimed, did not sell at the same levels as the Butch Karp series in the United States. The Book of Air and Shadows became a national bestseller shortly after its release in March of 2007, however.
Series:
* Jimmy Paz
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,299 reviews
April 16, 2008
This COULD have been an amazing book. If only the author had just stuck to his very interesting plot, instead of continually sharing pointless details and side stories about the characters. The main story was fascinating: Letters leading to a secret cipher that when cracked would lead to a hidden, and previously unread Shakespeare play. But for some reason the author could not seem to stay with this story. He seemed more interested in telling the story of the sexual pursuits of his various unlikeable characters. The fact that the story was written from three different points-of-view was also confusing and distracting. If only someone could edit this book, take out the garbage, and put it back out there with the gem of the story that is hidden inside, everyone would be reading it right now!
July 7, 2008
I usually try to give each book the first one hundred pages before deciding to quit. If it hasn't hooked me by then, it's doubtful it'll hook me any time soon. I gave this book the first forty pages and gave up. It's almost mind-numbingly boring. Written in first-person, so we know the narrator makes it through whatever it is that's coming up, there is no hook early on to make me want to keep reading. The narrator rambles on about things not connected to the main lost-manuscript-of-Shakespeare plot that's supposed to be the story, taking me away from that story and losing me in the process.
For a better and more interesting novel about a lost manuscript of Shakespeare, see Jennifer Lee Carrell's Interred with Their Bones.
For a better and more interesting novel about a lost manuscript of Shakespeare, see Jennifer Lee Carrell's Interred with Their Bones.
May 5, 2023
A literary, fun, nerdy thriller that pokes sticks at our religion of movie tropes, and authenticity, or lack of it. A joy to read, and the outline of the lost Shakespeare play is so wonderful it makes you wish it really existed.
December 25, 2013
Contrary to what you may have heard, the life of a book reviewer is not unending adventure. It's lots of speed-reading and sitting around in your bathrobe, trying to finish the next review while scouring the cupboard for more chocolate chips and wondering if that mole on your shoulder is looking weirder. Oh sure, "There is no frigate like a book/ To take us lands away," but give me a frigate break; sometimes you wouldn't mind a few thrills.
Which may be why I'm such a sucker for this relatively new genre of books that are literally literary thrillers -- stories in which some pudgy book guy is propelled into a vortex of romance, crime and intrigue. If you love books -- their physical presence, the craft of making them, the art of collecting them -- then you already may well have enjoyed Ross King's Ex Libris, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind and a dozen others. Now make room on the shelf for a new guilty pleasure from Michael Gruber called The Book of Air and Shadows. It's smart enough to let you think you're still superior to that cousin who raves about The Da Vinci Code, but it's packed with enough excitement to keep your inner bibliophile as happy as a folio in vellum.
Gruber's story revolves around the search for the most sought-after document in the world: a new play by William Shakespeare. In his own handwriting. To get an idea of how precious such a treasure would be, consider that for 400 years the entire Shakespeare industry has managed to find only six tiny samples of the playwright's handwriting: signatures (all misspelled) on a few legal documents. What would a Shakespeare scholar do to find an entire play in the Bard's hand? Whom would a criminal mastermind kill to steal it?
Enter The Book of Air and Shadows, stage right. The story begins with a fire at a rare bookshop on Madison Avenue. The next day, while trying to salvage some of the merchandise, Carolyn Rolly (gorgeous, mysterious) and Albert Crosetti (lives with mom) discover some pages hidden in the binding of an old book. After struggling for hours with the difficult handwriting and archaic spelling, Crosetti determines that he's reading a letter written by a 17th-century soldier on his deathbed.
Excerpts of this letter appear throughout the novel in alternating chapters, and it's not easy going: "Now my father seeyng this taxed us sayyng what shal you not only be idle thyselfe but also tayke my clerke into idlenesse with thee?" You'll be tempted to skip these rough patches, but don't. First of all, they get easier as you get used to them, and second, they're a chance to experience the mingled tedium and thrill of discovery. The letter describes a spectacularly exciting life, which culminated in an assignment to spy on a popular playwright and suspected Roman Catholic, Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, another thread of the novel takes up the story of Jake Mishkin, an intellectual-property lawyer who's holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks. While waiting for some Russian gangsters who will surely kill him, he's typing out the story of how he got in this mess. "Although there is a kind of lawyer who can reasonably expect a certain level of physical danger as part of the employment picture," he writes in his witty, rambling narrative, "I am not that kind of lawyer." Once an Olympic weightlifter, he's long since settled down to shuffling paper, cheating on his wife and leading a generally dull and morally vacuous life. But several months earlier, a frightened English professor came to his office. He wanted advice about how to secure the rights to a 17th-century letter that may point to the location of an unknown manuscript by Shakespeare. Jake promised to advise him and took possession of the letter, but soon after that meeting, the professor was found tortured to death, and Jake found his exquisitely ordered and pampered existence thrown into deadly disarray.
What follows is a wild story of double-crossings, forgeries, kidnappings and murders that's engrossing even when it's ridiculous. (At one point, the code secret is tattooed on a beautiful woman's thigh -- so handy.) We've got Russian mobsters, Jewish gangsters, Nazi thieves, international models and currency traders, oh my. And all of this madcap adventure in the present is mirrored in a story we gradually decipher from that 17th-century letter, describing a nefarious plot by radical Puritans to entrap "the secret papist Shaxpure." While twisting the plot into great knots of complexity, Gruber mixes in fascinating details about rare manuscripts, intellectual property, and ancient and modern cryptography.
Sadly, the women in this novel don't come off much better than they do in the average James Bond movie, but Jake is a truly engaging narrator, who's forced by this crisis to face up to a lifetime of moral weakness. And young Crosetti, who works in the rare bookstore only to put himself through film school, constantly reminds us -- even in the most dire circumstances -- that movies determine "our sense of how to behave. . . . Movies shape everyone's reality." That's a pop echo of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), which argued that the Bard's plays literally created modern consciousness, assembling a vast index of human personalities and experiences in which we continue to find ourselves. Gruber never reaches for Bloom's gravitas (thank God), but, as Bottom would say, it's "a very good piece of work, I assure you."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Which may be why I'm such a sucker for this relatively new genre of books that are literally literary thrillers -- stories in which some pudgy book guy is propelled into a vortex of romance, crime and intrigue. If you love books -- their physical presence, the craft of making them, the art of collecting them -- then you already may well have enjoyed Ross King's Ex Libris, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind and a dozen others. Now make room on the shelf for a new guilty pleasure from Michael Gruber called The Book of Air and Shadows. It's smart enough to let you think you're still superior to that cousin who raves about The Da Vinci Code, but it's packed with enough excitement to keep your inner bibliophile as happy as a folio in vellum.
Gruber's story revolves around the search for the most sought-after document in the world: a new play by William Shakespeare. In his own handwriting. To get an idea of how precious such a treasure would be, consider that for 400 years the entire Shakespeare industry has managed to find only six tiny samples of the playwright's handwriting: signatures (all misspelled) on a few legal documents. What would a Shakespeare scholar do to find an entire play in the Bard's hand? Whom would a criminal mastermind kill to steal it?
Enter The Book of Air and Shadows, stage right. The story begins with a fire at a rare bookshop on Madison Avenue. The next day, while trying to salvage some of the merchandise, Carolyn Rolly (gorgeous, mysterious) and Albert Crosetti (lives with mom) discover some pages hidden in the binding of an old book. After struggling for hours with the difficult handwriting and archaic spelling, Crosetti determines that he's reading a letter written by a 17th-century soldier on his deathbed.
Excerpts of this letter appear throughout the novel in alternating chapters, and it's not easy going: "Now my father seeyng this taxed us sayyng what shal you not only be idle thyselfe but also tayke my clerke into idlenesse with thee?" You'll be tempted to skip these rough patches, but don't. First of all, they get easier as you get used to them, and second, they're a chance to experience the mingled tedium and thrill of discovery. The letter describes a spectacularly exciting life, which culminated in an assignment to spy on a popular playwright and suspected Roman Catholic, Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, another thread of the novel takes up the story of Jake Mishkin, an intellectual-property lawyer who's holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks. While waiting for some Russian gangsters who will surely kill him, he's typing out the story of how he got in this mess. "Although there is a kind of lawyer who can reasonably expect a certain level of physical danger as part of the employment picture," he writes in his witty, rambling narrative, "I am not that kind of lawyer." Once an Olympic weightlifter, he's long since settled down to shuffling paper, cheating on his wife and leading a generally dull and morally vacuous life. But several months earlier, a frightened English professor came to his office. He wanted advice about how to secure the rights to a 17th-century letter that may point to the location of an unknown manuscript by Shakespeare. Jake promised to advise him and took possession of the letter, but soon after that meeting, the professor was found tortured to death, and Jake found his exquisitely ordered and pampered existence thrown into deadly disarray.
What follows is a wild story of double-crossings, forgeries, kidnappings and murders that's engrossing even when it's ridiculous. (At one point, the code secret is tattooed on a beautiful woman's thigh -- so handy.) We've got Russian mobsters, Jewish gangsters, Nazi thieves, international models and currency traders, oh my. And all of this madcap adventure in the present is mirrored in a story we gradually decipher from that 17th-century letter, describing a nefarious plot by radical Puritans to entrap "the secret papist Shaxpure." While twisting the plot into great knots of complexity, Gruber mixes in fascinating details about rare manuscripts, intellectual property, and ancient and modern cryptography.
Sadly, the women in this novel don't come off much better than they do in the average James Bond movie, but Jake is a truly engaging narrator, who's forced by this crisis to face up to a lifetime of moral weakness. And young Crosetti, who works in the rare bookstore only to put himself through film school, constantly reminds us -- even in the most dire circumstances -- that movies determine "our sense of how to behave. . . . Movies shape everyone's reality." That's a pop echo of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), which argued that the Bard's plays literally created modern consciousness, assembling a vast index of human personalities and experiences in which we continue to find ourselves. Gruber never reaches for Bloom's gravitas (thank God), but, as Bottom would say, it's "a very good piece of work, I assure you."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
August 16, 2008
a very enjoyable, but deeply flawed book...
flawed, because the gratuitous and largely pointless sexual content of this book almost causes it to founder...as a matter of fact, if you look at the majority of the reviews here and on amazon, many a reader could not get past it...
enjoyable, because the erudition and imagination that went into its creation are absolutely superlative...
the literary treasure hunt of the main characters and the prize itself are both filled with intellectual verisimilitude and brain twisting fun...
and the overall theme of the book is very satisfying as well...
as the book wends its way toward its conclusion you are always asking yourself "is the prize real or fake"...gruber constantly keeps you off balance and never really lets go with the truth until practically the very last moment...
what this question translated into thematically is: what is the nature of the 'dream' you pursue in life? is it real or is it fake?...
are you really pursuing your life's fulfillment?... or are you pursuing an obsession that can only end in self-destruction?...
the two characters in the book are contrasted to explore these issues to good effect...
gruber feebly tried to make the sexual content a part of the plot toward the end, but the lewdness and ribaldry of the depth and detail he provides was never really necessary...
what ends up on the pages as a result is arguably a more intellectually challenging romance novel...
in my opinion the work suffers mightily as a result...
flawed, because the gratuitous and largely pointless sexual content of this book almost causes it to founder...as a matter of fact, if you look at the majority of the reviews here and on amazon, many a reader could not get past it...
enjoyable, because the erudition and imagination that went into its creation are absolutely superlative...
the literary treasure hunt of the main characters and the prize itself are both filled with intellectual verisimilitude and brain twisting fun...
and the overall theme of the book is very satisfying as well...
as the book wends its way toward its conclusion you are always asking yourself "is the prize real or fake"...gruber constantly keeps you off balance and never really lets go with the truth until practically the very last moment...
what this question translated into thematically is: what is the nature of the 'dream' you pursue in life? is it real or is it fake?...
are you really pursuing your life's fulfillment?... or are you pursuing an obsession that can only end in self-destruction?...
the two characters in the book are contrasted to explore these issues to good effect...
gruber feebly tried to make the sexual content a part of the plot toward the end, but the lewdness and ribaldry of the depth and detail he provides was never really necessary...
what ends up on the pages as a result is arguably a more intellectually challenging romance novel...
in my opinion the work suffers mightily as a result...
July 6, 2008
Just dragged myself through the first chapter and i'm already questioning whether i should continue reading. Its just not fascinating me. In addition i hate the writing style. For someone like me who loves proper punctuating, this guy uses a million commas, in all the right places, but still its driving me nuts.
OK! and thats the end of that. I just finished the third chapter and almost cried at the idea of venturing on to the fourth. The main narrator just rambles on page after page, comma after comma, just like this, about his mother, his father, his almost best friend, his kids, his inability to stay faithful to his wife, or be a loving father, blah blah blah. Some of the things he says might actually be humorous, if he'd just get to the point, or if i wasn't looking to read a fantastic suspense filled thriller.
Ultimately, i just want the man to shut up. when he does actually talk about the plot of the book, the story is almost intriguing. if i have to say something positive about this book it is that Michael Gruber, is good at setting up the intrigue but lacks the ability to keep me so. After 4 months of waiting for my library to get the paperback edition (i refused to carry this around in hardcover)i am not even pissed about quiting 65 pages into it, i just want it to go away.
OK! and thats the end of that. I just finished the third chapter and almost cried at the idea of venturing on to the fourth. The main narrator just rambles on page after page, comma after comma, just like this, about his mother, his father, his almost best friend, his kids, his inability to stay faithful to his wife, or be a loving father, blah blah blah. Some of the things he says might actually be humorous, if he'd just get to the point, or if i wasn't looking to read a fantastic suspense filled thriller.
Ultimately, i just want the man to shut up. when he does actually talk about the plot of the book, the story is almost intriguing. if i have to say something positive about this book it is that Michael Gruber, is good at setting up the intrigue but lacks the ability to keep me so. After 4 months of waiting for my library to get the paperback edition (i refused to carry this around in hardcover)i am not even pissed about quiting 65 pages into it, i just want it to go away.
August 16, 2007
I really wanted to give this one a chance, but it was so bogged down in meaningless details that very little happened within the first 100 pages. The style of writing is very meandering, so much that it detracts from the plot. Which is a shame, because the premise of the book sounded very interesting, but in the end it was just too dull for me to be able to get through. For me, it spent way too much time dwelling on the family of the characters rather than establishing a plot.
September 1, 2012
Shakespeare, Russian gangsters, cyphers, antique books, sex and the English Civil War - what's not to like?
Well, nothing really. Of course there wasn't much that I found that I actually liked either. Actually that's a bit unfair to The Book of Air and Shadows. It's not as if I was bored by the book, it just sat on my bedside table for two months, half finished and ignored in favor of other books. I always intended to finish it. I was never so disgusted that I put it down with the intention of never picking it up again. It just languished there while other books seemed to demand my attention. I finally realized that after two months I probably wasn't going to finish it.
The premise was interesting and though the plot (at least as much of it as I read) was unremarkable, it was dressed up in interesting 'clothes.' The way that Michael Gruber switches between three very different voices and points of view is actually rather engaging. It regulates the pace of the novel and provides some variety. Bracegirdle's letters, central to the plot of the novel, are presented as separate chapters throughout the novel and provide a great side story that compliments the main plot. Mr. Gruber's writing never thrills but also never grates or feels clumsy or awkward.
All in all, The Book of Air and Shadows was a good light read. My review actually reminds me that I did enjoy the book while reading it and if I were looking forward to some time at the beach, I wouldn't hesitate to bring the book along.
I always feel guilty reviewing a book I didn't finish but I think that the book's inability to 'hook' me is both the books only real failing and the most valuable review I could give.
Well, nothing really. Of course there wasn't much that I found that I actually liked either. Actually that's a bit unfair to The Book of Air and Shadows. It's not as if I was bored by the book, it just sat on my bedside table for two months, half finished and ignored in favor of other books. I always intended to finish it. I was never so disgusted that I put it down with the intention of never picking it up again. It just languished there while other books seemed to demand my attention. I finally realized that after two months I probably wasn't going to finish it.
The premise was interesting and though the plot (at least as much of it as I read) was unremarkable, it was dressed up in interesting 'clothes.' The way that Michael Gruber switches between three very different voices and points of view is actually rather engaging. It regulates the pace of the novel and provides some variety. Bracegirdle's letters, central to the plot of the novel, are presented as separate chapters throughout the novel and provide a great side story that compliments the main plot. Mr. Gruber's writing never thrills but also never grates or feels clumsy or awkward.
All in all, The Book of Air and Shadows was a good light read. My review actually reminds me that I did enjoy the book while reading it and if I were looking forward to some time at the beach, I wouldn't hesitate to bring the book along.
I always feel guilty reviewing a book I didn't finish but I think that the book's inability to 'hook' me is both the books only real failing and the most valuable review I could give.
April 9, 2008
I loved this book because it's written in several different voices; in fact I almost quit reading it because the first narrator's voice was super casual and seemed like a mindless pop fiction. but don't let it fool you. The style picked up and entertained me as soon as the other narrator emerged. It contains movie references -- which was fun for cultural references, and I loved deciperhing the allulsions. The book has been compared to DaVinci Code, but only because it's a suspense thriller, cross continental treasure hunt; sorry, no religious controversy. The fact that the characters are hunting for a Shakespearean play made it all the more fun.
January 23, 2018
I gave up. Endless sidetracking, heaps of information, no clear storyline and most of all very boring. This book made me wonder if it was edited at all. Also, i did not really like the main character that starts out telling the story. A very annoying, self-absorbed and egocentric lawyer. In the end i remembered my resolution: life's too short to read bad books. Such a pity. I really do love books about mysterious books.
November 6, 2008
My biggest problem with this book is the narrator's voice. Maybe I should say voices, because there are two. The first is in first person and as he tells his story he becomes more and more irritating due to his almost complete self-absorption, and I feel that the focus on his incessant and often pointless yammering detracts from the story itself. The second is a third person narrator. Having a first person narrator and a third person narrator in the same story irritates the crap out of me. Pick one and go with it. It's a peeve. Sue me.
However, even writers who irritate me can have moments that transcend and cause me to forgive their other crimes. In this book the moment arrives on page 379:
"She kissed him briefly and slid out of the bed and he thought there can't be many things more lovely than watching a woman you've just made love to walk across the room, that way her back and her ass look in the dawn's early light...."
Some truths are universal.
However, even writers who irritate me can have moments that transcend and cause me to forgive their other crimes. In this book the moment arrives on page 379:
"She kissed him briefly and slid out of the bed and he thought there can't be many things more lovely than watching a woman you've just made love to walk across the room, that way her back and her ass look in the dawn's early light...."
Some truths are universal.
October 28, 2019
I had trouble deciding which of my shelves this belonged on! So many things are going on at once.
It is part "treasure hunt"... think "Da Vinci Code", without the creepy bits.
It is part "history"... lots about the time of Shakespeare, and the various power stuggles of the era.
I'm afraid that I now take notes as I read... And that really would have helped here. There were at least two major story lines, two "teams" chasing "the treasure". (This review won't give away spoilers.
And then there are at least two "final answers" hinted at as you make your way through the book.
Many wonderfully imagined and drawn characters.
It is a very "rich" meal... I took much longer to get through it, than I normally would have taken to read this many pages... but it wasn't a struggle, wasn't "hard work".
I hope it will give you as much pleasure as it did me. Will capture your interest and exercise your imagination.
It is part "treasure hunt"... think "Da Vinci Code", without the creepy bits.
It is part "history"... lots about the time of Shakespeare, and the various power stuggles of the era.
I'm afraid that I now take notes as I read... And that really would have helped here. There were at least two major story lines, two "teams" chasing "the treasure". (This review won't give away spoilers.
And then there are at least two "final answers" hinted at as you make your way through the book.
Many wonderfully imagined and drawn characters.
It is a very "rich" meal... I took much longer to get through it, than I normally would have taken to read this many pages... but it wasn't a struggle, wasn't "hard work".
I hope it will give you as much pleasure as it did me. Will capture your interest and exercise your imagination.
July 22, 2009
What a fascinating story Gruber has constructed. There is a manuscript from the 1600's used as padding in the covers of an old map portfolio found by the geeky book shop young man; the story of the bookshop man; the story of a lawyer who received the manuscript from a client and the client then was murdered for it; and multiple other storylines. The gist is there might be an unpublished Shakespeare play buried in England, written in his own hand. Since none of Shakespeare’s plays were even signed (well, maybe one) this would be a huge find and would put to bed the question of Shakespeare being the author of note we think he is (and some scholar's beg to differ). This story is woven together well and although I don't know what happens yet since I'm only half way through, I'd say it's a great read and recommend it highly.
August 13, 2007
This book seemingly has it all- Russian/Jewish mobsters, Shakespeare scholars, lying women, Jesuit priest/thug, intelligent and sassy middle aged women (wait, can anyone over the age of 25 be considered sassy?), ciphers, several conspiracty theories some twists and turns and a big finish. What it doesn't have is that undefinable quality that distinguishes it from all the other dime a dozen conspiracy books. The writing is adequate though not compelling which is why I can't rank it more than two stars.
September 20, 2019
"Daiļliteratūra ir patiesība. Ja tā ir kaut cik laba.”
Pēdējā laikā avien biežāk nākas sākt ar vārdiem “un sākums bija tik cerīgs”. Kā nu ne – intelektuālā īpašuma advokāts ar humora izjūtu (proti, diezgan reti sastopams eksemplārs), kura rīcībā nonāk intriģējošas 17.gadsimta vēstules, kuras varētu izraisīt īstu sensāciju Viljama Šekspīra dzīves un daiļrades izpētē.
Tāpēc man nekādi nekļuva skaidrs – kā tik aizraujošu sižeta meteriālu var pārvērst par kaut ko tik pārgarlaicīgu ?! Kā ?! Tāda bija patiesā autora iecere vai tulkojuma vaina? Lai nu kā, literārā baudījuma ziņā šo patiesi uzskatu par zemē nomestu laiku, bezgalīgu sevis piespiešanu arvien vairākus vakarus pēc kārtas atkal atgriezties pie šī stāsta. Ja sākumā šķita uzdzirkstam smalka ironija, tad jau drīz autora vēlme par katru cenu paspīdēt ar savu humora izjūtu sāka kaitināt, neskaitāmās atkāpes galvenā varoņa ģimenes vēsturē un mīlas dēkās sāka vienkārši “izbesīt”. Varbūt, ja to visu atmestu, sanāktu adekvāta biezuma sakarīga grāmatiņa – 440 lapas viennozīmīgi bija daudz par daudz.
Ko es tomēr ieguvu – informāciju. Par Šekspīru un viņa laiku (ak, šie reliģiju kari), par grāmatu iesiešanu, par šifrēšanas un atšifrēšanas metodēm (nomenklators, Alberti aizstāšanas šifrs, Blēza Viženēra polialfabētiskais aizstāšanas šifrs, Kasiska-Kerkhofa metode, Kerckofa risinājums utt.).
““Tātad tas ir svarīgi, vai Šekspīrs bijis katolis?” “Tas ir svarīgi, vai Šekspīrs bijis jebkas. Mēs gandrīz neko nezinām par cilvēces vēsturē dižākā rakstnieka privāto dzīvi.”
“Šekspīra slavenās izdomāšanas spējas slikti izpaužas sižetos. Visas, izņemot divas lugas, ir aizņemtas, reizēm pat acīm redzami, no agrākiem avotiem, un labi, ka tajos laikos nebija autortiesību. Mēs ejam klausīties viņa lugas, lai dzirdētu valodu, tāpat kā uz operu ejam, lai klausītos mūziku; sižets abos ir otršķirīgs, patiesībā banāls, bet — un to pamanīja arī laikabiedri — nav neviena, kas līdzīgi viņam spētu paņemt kaut ko no dzīves un uzlikt uz skatuves.”
Un līdz kam nekad nebiju aizdomājusies – par kino ietekmi uz mūsu dzīvi.
“Ne tikai dzīve bija kā kino, kino bija tas, kāpēc dzīve bija tāda, kāda ta bija. (..) Filmas ir vispirms. Piemēram, nevienam nekad nav bijusi tieša apšaude, strauji izvelkot ieročus uz putekļainas galvenās ielas rietumu mazpilsētā. Tā nekad nav noticis, nekad. Scenārists to izgudroja, lai palielinātu dramatisko efektu. Tas ir klasiskais amerikāņu trops, pestīšana caur vardarbību, un tas izpaužas filmās. Patiesajos Mežonīgajos Rietumos bija ļoti maz šaujamieroču. Tie bija ļoti dārgi un smagi, un tikai idiots tos nēsātu makstī pie sāniem. Zirgā? Kad kādu Mežonīgajos Rietumos gribēja nogalināt, tad gaidīja izdevību un nošāva viņu no mugurpuses, parasti ar bisi. Tagad mums ir neskaitāmas pistoles, jo filmas ir iemācījušas, ka pistole ir kaut kas tāds, kas īstam vīrietim ir nepieciešams, un cilvēki reāli nogalina viens otru kā vesternu šāvēji. Un ne tikai bandīti. Filmas piešķir veidolu ikviena cilvēka īstenībai tādā mērā, kā to veido cilvēku rīcība — ārpolitika, bizness, seksuālās attiecības, ģimenes dinamika, pilnīgi viss. Agrāk ta bija Bībele, bet tagad filmas. Kāpēc ir uzmācība? Tāpēc, ka mēs zinām, ka puisim ir jābut uzstājīgam un jāpadara sevi par muļķi, līdz meitene atzīst, ka viņu mīl. Mēs visi to esam redzējuši. (..) Es gribu teikt, mēs tagad dzīvojam kino.”
Vērtējums: 3/5
Laba ideja, kas tā arī nav pienācīgi noslīpēta.
Pēdējā laikā avien biežāk nākas sākt ar vārdiem “un sākums bija tik cerīgs”. Kā nu ne – intelektuālā īpašuma advokāts ar humora izjūtu (proti, diezgan reti sastopams eksemplārs), kura rīcībā nonāk intriģējošas 17.gadsimta vēstules, kuras varētu izraisīt īstu sensāciju Viljama Šekspīra dzīves un daiļrades izpētē.
Tāpēc man nekādi nekļuva skaidrs – kā tik aizraujošu sižeta meteriālu var pārvērst par kaut ko tik pārgarlaicīgu ?! Kā ?! Tāda bija patiesā autora iecere vai tulkojuma vaina? Lai nu kā, literārā baudījuma ziņā šo patiesi uzskatu par zemē nomestu laiku, bezgalīgu sevis piespiešanu arvien vairākus vakarus pēc kārtas atkal atgriezties pie šī stāsta. Ja sākumā šķita uzdzirkstam smalka ironija, tad jau drīz autora vēlme par katru cenu paspīdēt ar savu humora izjūtu sāka kaitināt, neskaitāmās atkāpes galvenā varoņa ģimenes vēsturē un mīlas dēkās sāka vienkārši “izbesīt”. Varbūt, ja to visu atmestu, sanāktu adekvāta biezuma sakarīga grāmatiņa – 440 lapas viennozīmīgi bija daudz par daudz.
Ko es tomēr ieguvu – informāciju. Par Šekspīru un viņa laiku (ak, šie reliģiju kari), par grāmatu iesiešanu, par šifrēšanas un atšifrēšanas metodēm (nomenklators, Alberti aizstāšanas šifrs, Blēza Viženēra polialfabētiskais aizstāšanas šifrs, Kasiska-Kerkhofa metode, Kerckofa risinājums utt.).
““Tātad tas ir svarīgi, vai Šekspīrs bijis katolis?” “Tas ir svarīgi, vai Šekspīrs bijis jebkas. Mēs gandrīz neko nezinām par cilvēces vēsturē dižākā rakstnieka privāto dzīvi.”
“Šekspīra slavenās izdomāšanas spējas slikti izpaužas sižetos. Visas, izņemot divas lugas, ir aizņemtas, reizēm pat acīm redzami, no agrākiem avotiem, un labi, ka tajos laikos nebija autortiesību. Mēs ejam klausīties viņa lugas, lai dzirdētu valodu, tāpat kā uz operu ejam, lai klausītos mūziku; sižets abos ir otršķirīgs, patiesībā banāls, bet — un to pamanīja arī laikabiedri — nav neviena, kas līdzīgi viņam spētu paņemt kaut ko no dzīves un uzlikt uz skatuves.”
Un līdz kam nekad nebiju aizdomājusies – par kino ietekmi uz mūsu dzīvi.
“Ne tikai dzīve bija kā kino, kino bija tas, kāpēc dzīve bija tāda, kāda ta bija. (..) Filmas ir vispirms. Piemēram, nevienam nekad nav bijusi tieša apšaude, strauji izvelkot ieročus uz putekļainas galvenās ielas rietumu mazpilsētā. Tā nekad nav noticis, nekad. Scenārists to izgudroja, lai palielinātu dramatisko efektu. Tas ir klasiskais amerikāņu trops, pestīšana caur vardarbību, un tas izpaužas filmās. Patiesajos Mežonīgajos Rietumos bija ļoti maz šaujamieroču. Tie bija ļoti dārgi un smagi, un tikai idiots tos nēsātu makstī pie sāniem. Zirgā? Kad kādu Mežonīgajos Rietumos gribēja nogalināt, tad gaidīja izdevību un nošāva viņu no mugurpuses, parasti ar bisi. Tagad mums ir neskaitāmas pistoles, jo filmas ir iemācījušas, ka pistole ir kaut kas tāds, kas īstam vīrietim ir nepieciešams, un cilvēki reāli nogalina viens otru kā vesternu šāvēji. Un ne tikai bandīti. Filmas piešķir veidolu ikviena cilvēka īstenībai tādā mērā, kā to veido cilvēku rīcība — ārpolitika, bizness, seksuālās attiecības, ģimenes dinamika, pilnīgi viss. Agrāk ta bija Bībele, bet tagad filmas. Kāpēc ir uzmācība? Tāpēc, ka mēs zinām, ka puisim ir jābut uzstājīgam un jāpadara sevi par muļķi, līdz meitene atzīst, ka viņu mīl. Mēs visi to esam redzējuši. (..) Es gribu teikt, mēs tagad dzīvojam kino.”
Vērtējums: 3/5
Laba ideja, kas tā arī nav pienācīgi noslīpēta.
May 2, 2014
This is a fabulous book - wildly inventive, compelling, deeply personal, and smart as hell. For starters you will learn more than you thought you wanted to know about bookbinding, Shakespearean scholarship, and secret ciphers. The education itself is worth more than the price of entry. Gruber has done a mind-numbing amount of research to make these topics interesting and accessible to his readers. Reading this won't be easy going. You are going to have to think, but you will be rewarded in the end.
The story itself is full of twists and surprises, although by the time you get to the end you will have already figured most of it out. This was not a problem for me, because by the time I got to the end I was fully engaged with the characters, and anxious for their individual redemption.
Other reviewers have complained about the seeming overload of personal, confessional detail of the characters' lives, especially the protagonist and narrator, Jake Mishkin, because they can for the most part be eliminated without injury to the plot. This may be true, and if you are one of those readers who likes to bypass the superfluous to get to the exciting conclusion and on to the next book, then this story is not for you.
There is a lot of extraneous detail in here, and the narrator seems to meander aimlessly backwards to fill in personal histories when you already know the import. To me this was extremely enriching and satisfying. Gruber could have told his story in half the time with half the words, but it would not have been, for me at least who loves a sinner with all my heart, nearly so engaging.
The seemingly disjointed enumeration of unrelated anecdotes by the first person narrator, Mishkin, also cements his place in the story as an Intellectual Property lawyer rather than a writer. The narrator gives us details in the fashion of a cross examining attorney rather than as a polished writer. That Gruber is able to maintain this artifice throughout is something of a marvel to me. I have also read Tropic of Night, which is completely different in tone and character, and that difference made me realize just how good a writer Gruber is.
I can't recommend this book enough. It is far and away the best thing I have read this year. If you like a smart book, occasionally challenging, with a lovely balance between plot and characterization and a little bit of arcane knowledge sprinkled in so you've got something to take away besides the satisfaction of a good read, then you need to read The Book of Air and Shadows. You'll be glad you did.
The story itself is full of twists and surprises, although by the time you get to the end you will have already figured most of it out. This was not a problem for me, because by the time I got to the end I was fully engaged with the characters, and anxious for their individual redemption.
Other reviewers have complained about the seeming overload of personal, confessional detail of the characters' lives, especially the protagonist and narrator, Jake Mishkin, because they can for the most part be eliminated without injury to the plot. This may be true, and if you are one of those readers who likes to bypass the superfluous to get to the exciting conclusion and on to the next book, then this story is not for you.
There is a lot of extraneous detail in here, and the narrator seems to meander aimlessly backwards to fill in personal histories when you already know the import. To me this was extremely enriching and satisfying. Gruber could have told his story in half the time with half the words, but it would not have been, for me at least who loves a sinner with all my heart, nearly so engaging.
The seemingly disjointed enumeration of unrelated anecdotes by the first person narrator, Mishkin, also cements his place in the story as an Intellectual Property lawyer rather than a writer. The narrator gives us details in the fashion of a cross examining attorney rather than as a polished writer. That Gruber is able to maintain this artifice throughout is something of a marvel to me. I have also read Tropic of Night, which is completely different in tone and character, and that difference made me realize just how good a writer Gruber is.
I can't recommend this book enough. It is far and away the best thing I have read this year. If you like a smart book, occasionally challenging, with a lovely balance between plot and characterization and a little bit of arcane knowledge sprinkled in so you've got something to take away besides the satisfaction of a good read, then you need to read The Book of Air and Shadows. You'll be glad you did.
June 3, 2014
This one sat around staring at me for quite some weeks, but its girth and the absolutely bipolar love hate reviews have been holding me back. Alas, I finally tackled it and I'm glad I did, it was a lot of fun and moved along very nicely for a book its size. I neither loved nor hated it, although for a significant while at first it was closer to love. I'm always looking for the next Shadow of The Wind, adore books about books and all things to do with Shakespeare. Gruber is no Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but he is a very adept writer, the problem with the book that he crammed SO much into it, it sort of collapsed somewhat under its own weight and so, after most auspicious beginning, it turned too thriller, too bestsellery, too action, almost farcical at times. Maybe if the story was smaller, more self contained, maybe if it was just Crozetti's story (instead of sticking us with a fairly deplorable morally ambiguous at best narrator), maybe sans the plodding old English passages, it would have been better. As it was though it worked, quite well actually, it was a very entertaining read. and fan of literary thrillers or books about books (there must be a word for this, bibliosomething...) would enjoy this one. Recommended.
April 21, 2008
Were it not for a couple of flaws, I might have given this book 5 stars. I liked the premise and the way the plot was developed; there were a couple of surprises along the way, which is always nice. One enjoyable aspect of the book was the occasional acute observation on the part of the author. These were usually apropos of nothing; just an unexpected bonus that I found striking and something that makes the book more than a standard thriller. My principal complaints have to do with the climax of the plot, which I found awkward. There were more complications than were absolutely necessary - particularly a surfeit of characters. Also, themes popped up at the end that hadn't really been part of the texture of earlier parts of the book, i.e. speculations about tragedy vs. comedy etc. Despite the criticisms, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to friends.
August 14, 2007
Picked up this book because it was a fictional mystery surrounding one of my all-time favorite writers, William Shakespeare.
Got halfway through this book. I ended up so bored with it that I just decided to not finish, which isn't something I do easily. I hate not finishing a book, but this one is just...poorly written. The characters are nothing great, most are not even believable and have a very base personality, the setting is rather dull and stupid, and overall the story is rather predictable. It was disjointed in a bad way and hard to follow at times as a result. Just not a very good book at all.
Got halfway through this book. I ended up so bored with it that I just decided to not finish, which isn't something I do easily. I hate not finishing a book, but this one is just...poorly written. The characters are nothing great, most are not even believable and have a very base personality, the setting is rather dull and stupid, and overall the story is rather predictable. It was disjointed in a bad way and hard to follow at times as a result. Just not a very good book at all.
August 31, 2011
I'm kind of split on this book; with three different storylines, that's not a difficult place to be.
Crosetti is by far the most enjoyable, but by the end it was annoying how he constantly described film cliches in the thriller genre, only to have the events play out exactly as he said. He explains his idea that life imitates film, not the other way around, and I suppose this is the author's way of illustrating that point, but--come ON. I don't read these kinds of books because I can guess the ending and what side all the players are on. Still, despite his formulaic movie obsession, the interactions of Crosetti, his family, Carolyn, and Klim are quite entertaining. Crosetti's mother is probably my favorite character in the entire 460+ pages.
Richard Bracegirdle's chapters are difficult, because his narration is told completely in 17th century letters written in the Jacobean style of inconsistent spelling variations. It turned what could have been the most interesting story into sentences that were almost painful to slog through. I get historical realism, but please don't make it hard on your readers. (They got faster as the book went on; by the last letter, I was almost used to it.)
Jake--I hated him. Just absolutely despised him. A former weighterlifter, now intellectual property lawyer with a sex addiction, a Nazi mother, a Jewish gangster father, a slutty sister, a thug-turned-priest brother, a painfully good estranged wife, a completely abnormal son and a regular teen daughter, he's got WAY too much going on in his life--and I didn't care about any of it. His sexual exploits made too many appearances--sorry, I'm just not interested in the various noises women make--and his long paragraphs fighting with his guilt were irritating. His story was told in the first person, leading me to think that *this* is the one the audience is supposed to identify with the most, to listen to the most, to care about the most. *This* guy is more the main character of the book than anyone else.
Thbbbbbbbbbbt.
Why did I pick this book up? Because it was a book about a lost Shakespeare manuscript and ciphered letters hiding its location. I like tales with a literary/historical bent, and I love a good mystery. This had little history, and less mystery. What should have been surprises were too long coming, or just fulfilling onscreen cliches. For the sake of Crosetti and his mother, I would love to give this book 2.5 stars. However, GoodReads won't let me have a half star, so I'm rounding down--I can't convince myself to round up.
Crosetti is by far the most enjoyable, but by the end it was annoying how he constantly described film cliches in the thriller genre, only to have the events play out exactly as he said. He explains his idea that life imitates film, not the other way around, and I suppose this is the author's way of illustrating that point, but--come ON. I don't read these kinds of books because I can guess the ending and what side all the players are on. Still, despite his formulaic movie obsession, the interactions of Crosetti, his family, Carolyn, and Klim are quite entertaining. Crosetti's mother is probably my favorite character in the entire 460+ pages.
Richard Bracegirdle's chapters are difficult, because his narration is told completely in 17th century letters written in the Jacobean style of inconsistent spelling variations. It turned what could have been the most interesting story into sentences that were almost painful to slog through. I get historical realism, but please don't make it hard on your readers. (They got faster as the book went on; by the last letter, I was almost used to it.)
Jake--I hated him. Just absolutely despised him. A former weighterlifter, now intellectual property lawyer with a sex addiction, a Nazi mother, a Jewish gangster father, a slutty sister, a thug-turned-priest brother, a painfully good estranged wife, a completely abnormal son and a regular teen daughter, he's got WAY too much going on in his life--and I didn't care about any of it. His sexual exploits made too many appearances--sorry, I'm just not interested in the various noises women make--and his long paragraphs fighting with his guilt were irritating. His story was told in the first person, leading me to think that *this* is the one the audience is supposed to identify with the most, to listen to the most, to care about the most. *This* guy is more the main character of the book than anyone else.
Thbbbbbbbbbbt.
Why did I pick this book up? Because it was a book about a lost Shakespeare manuscript and ciphered letters hiding its location. I like tales with a literary/historical bent, and I love a good mystery. This had little history, and less mystery. What should have been surprises were too long coming, or just fulfilling onscreen cliches. For the sake of Crosetti and his mother, I would love to give this book 2.5 stars. However, GoodReads won't let me have a half star, so I'm rounding down--I can't convince myself to round up.
September 4, 2018
This book is getting a lot of negative reviews, and I can see why. If you are looking for a thriller ( and this is how it was advertised - literary thriller) then you should probably look elsewhere. This is not a typical brain candy with the easy bad guy, plus your average good guy who saves the world or a country or a city or a family - no, this is definitely not that kind of the book.
If you are looking for a straightforward plot that has a roller coaster speed, yet again, do not attempt this book.
This book offers something different. It offers deeply flawed characters who are very hard to love, but it is even harder to hate them. It offers insights into the variety of broken family dynamics without any hope of normalcy.
It also offers multiple points of view, past and present narratives, and some insight into the literary enigma of William Shakespeare for those who are not familiar with anti-Shakespearean theories, the world of spies, and mobsters, and money.
Of course, the main feminine character is the typical damsel in distress who is in fact a true femme fatal; as a result, what people call gratuitous sex scenes are fully relevant, in my opinion. I did enjoy the rural slightly country twist of her background. The only way of summarizing this part of her story is the phrase, " Well, that was something"
I truly enjoyed it. I know it was not perfect in its execution , but I do like some uppety motives in the book and why and how it can infuriate some readers. I find this fact extremely enjoyable, especially the infuriating part ...
If you are looking for a straightforward plot that has a roller coaster speed, yet again, do not attempt this book.
This book offers something different. It offers deeply flawed characters who are very hard to love, but it is even harder to hate them. It offers insights into the variety of broken family dynamics without any hope of normalcy.
It also offers multiple points of view, past and present narratives, and some insight into the literary enigma of William Shakespeare for those who are not familiar with anti-Shakespearean theories, the world of spies, and mobsters, and money.
Of course, the main feminine character is the typical damsel in distress who is in fact a true femme fatal; as a result, what people call gratuitous sex scenes are fully relevant, in my opinion. I did enjoy the rural slightly country twist of her background. The only way of summarizing this part of her story is the phrase, " Well, that was something"
I truly enjoyed it. I know it was not perfect in its execution , but I do like some uppety motives in the book and why and how it can infuriate some readers. I find this fact extremely enjoyable, especially the infuriating part ...
February 17, 2009
The Book of Air and Shadows falls into that curious genre known as the "literary thriller" - curious because most thrillers mostly contain poor to middling writing (read: Dan Brown) and focus almost solely on plot, and much less on character development or other things that you find in books that carry the "literature" label.
Since I am a fan of more literary works (yes, I am pretentious that way) but still enjoy a good plot every now and then, books like this one appeal to me a lot and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The main characters are all very flawed and very compelling, the plot is fun and self-referencing in an amusing sort of way, and there's even a bit of interesting cryptography involved, which appeals to my geek sensibilities. Fans of more traditional genre thrillers will probably find the going a bit slow compared to what they are used to.
The ending of the book was the only thing that was a little bit disappointing - most of it was fairly guessable even for someone like me who almost never figures out what is going on in books like this, and the climactic scene was a bit overdone, even if it was sort of that way on purpose because the author was having some fun with the genre.
Since I am a fan of more literary works (yes, I am pretentious that way) but still enjoy a good plot every now and then, books like this one appeal to me a lot and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The main characters are all very flawed and very compelling, the plot is fun and self-referencing in an amusing sort of way, and there's even a bit of interesting cryptography involved, which appeals to my geek sensibilities. Fans of more traditional genre thrillers will probably find the going a bit slow compared to what they are used to.
The ending of the book was the only thing that was a little bit disappointing - most of it was fairly guessable even for someone like me who almost never figures out what is going on in books like this, and the climactic scene was a bit overdone, even if it was sort of that way on purpose because the author was having some fun with the genre.
January 4, 2008
A rather thrilling story about the discovery of a letter that proves not only Shakespeare's existence but also the existence of another, previously unknown, play. The best part of the book is how the author told the story from alternating viewpoints - one as events are happening and one from the first-person perspective of one of the characters. There is ALOT of back story about who these two main characters are as a way to explain why they do what they do, although I don't know that it is so compelling to warrant all the extra pages. Without it, I guess you have just another Dan Brown thriller.
Still, it was a good story, if a little long, and I learned some things about Shakespeare, ciphers, bookbinding, etc. that I didn't know before. My only complaint, besides the length, is the somewhat confusing plotline of the letter and play being an elaborate scam, but I don't want to give too much away. Let's just say it happens late in the story and it wasn't convincing to me, so I was surprised it was convincing to the characters.
Still, it was a good story, if a little long, and I learned some things about Shakespeare, ciphers, bookbinding, etc. that I didn't know before. My only complaint, besides the length, is the somewhat confusing plotline of the letter and play being an elaborate scam, but I don't want to give too much away. Let's just say it happens late in the story and it wasn't convincing to me, so I was surprised it was convincing to the characters.
April 5, 2008
Interesting concept for a book, but not the storyline was not interesting enough to keep me glued to it. I think I would have lost interest and the will to finish it, if it weren't our book club selection for the month of April...and I didn't have 8 hours of travel via plane to kill. The letters that are interspersed throughout the book were difficult to read, and so I started by-passing those completely very early on. It did not seem to impact my understanding of what was taking place. I did think the facts about Shakespeare were interesting. Overall, I would not pass this book along or recommend it to others. Book re-sell shop, here I come!
March 27, 2022
begs the question: are men really this horny?
Read
January 25, 2019Abandono, no puedo con este libro :/
May 31, 2019
The book of air and shadows, could not have a better title because, really, the feeling that I had after reading it is of inconsistency, almost 600 pages where more than half is air and the rest is a constant race chasing shadows.
I had a hard time not quitting it because I had 200 pages read and nothing interesting had happened yet. The letters, I started reading them but they were so boring that I ended up skipping them. It has good details but the characters, especially Jake, ramble too much without contributing anything to the plot.
My actual rating is 1.5 stars, especially for characters like Mary Peg and Klim.
===========================
El libro del aire y las sombras, no podía tener un título mejor porque, realmente, la sensación que me quedó al leerlo es de su inconsistencia, más de 500 páginas donde la más de la mitad es aire y el resto es una carrera constante persiguiendo sombras.
Me costó bastante no abandonar su lectura porque llevaba 200 páginas leídas y todavía no había pasado nada interesante, las cartas, empecé leyéndolas pero eran tan aburridas que terminé por saltármelas. Tiene detalles buenos pero los personajes, especialmente Jake, divagan demasiado sin aportar nada a la trama.
Mi puntuación real es de 1,5 estrellas, sobre todo por personajes como Mary Peg y Klim.
I had a hard time not quitting it because I had 200 pages read and nothing interesting had happened yet. The letters, I started reading them but they were so boring that I ended up skipping them. It has good details but the characters, especially Jake, ramble too much without contributing anything to the plot.
My actual rating is 1.5 stars, especially for characters like Mary Peg and Klim.
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El libro del aire y las sombras, no podía tener un título mejor porque, realmente, la sensación que me quedó al leerlo es de su inconsistencia, más de 500 páginas donde la más de la mitad es aire y el resto es una carrera constante persiguiendo sombras.
Me costó bastante no abandonar su lectura porque llevaba 200 páginas leídas y todavía no había pasado nada interesante, las cartas, empecé leyéndolas pero eran tan aburridas que terminé por saltármelas. Tiene detalles buenos pero los personajes, especialmente Jake, divagan demasiado sin aportar nada a la trama.
Mi puntuación real es de 1,5 estrellas, sobre todo por personajes como Mary Peg y Klim.
January 6, 2014
Fascinating, well-researched, masterfully crafted Shakespeare pseudo-history. Silly, overly complicated, implausible, downright infuriating potboiler whodunnit plot - but there's a method to this madness.
Gruber's The Book of Air and Shadows bears a lot of similarities to Dan Brown's literate mysteries. It's a rare-book scandal unraveled by following a skein of coded messages. In this case, the messages are 17th-century cryptography. The author seems to have a firm grasp on this arcane stuff, but I can't tell. He explains the techniques in detail, but I can't follow them. Then, I was one of those lazy students who skipped calculus because I had heard that it was hard. My loss, I'm sure.
The Shakespeare invented history is amazing and jaw-dropping. If you haven't read Bill Bryson's Shakespeare you might bring that along. Gruber even invents old documents written in Elizabethan argot. Like the cryptography material, these seem authentic, but I couldn't tell you.
Then there's the mystery plot. More on Boychik Lit blog
Gruber's The Book of Air and Shadows bears a lot of similarities to Dan Brown's literate mysteries. It's a rare-book scandal unraveled by following a skein of coded messages. In this case, the messages are 17th-century cryptography. The author seems to have a firm grasp on this arcane stuff, but I can't tell. He explains the techniques in detail, but I can't follow them. Then, I was one of those lazy students who skipped calculus because I had heard that it was hard. My loss, I'm sure.
The Shakespeare invented history is amazing and jaw-dropping. If you haven't read Bill Bryson's Shakespeare you might bring that along. Gruber even invents old documents written in Elizabethan argot. Like the cryptography material, these seem authentic, but I couldn't tell you.
Then there's the mystery plot. More on Boychik Lit blog
March 17, 2008
I did not enjoy reading this book. I continued to try to read it because I was on vacation and I was desperate for reading material. I never had any feelings for any of the characters. The main character seemed to be an egotistical womanizer, which was not appealing, to say the least. Perhaps starting the narrative in first person should have been a giveaway. I finally stopped reading when I had access to English books at an airport terminal and bought a new one.
March 25, 2018
This is a difficult book to review because it has so much going on. Initially I found it very engaging. An intellectual property lawyer, Jake Mishkin, gets a 17th century document to guard. It is a narrative by a man named Bracegirdle. These are a series of letters to his wife relating his life and in particular his role as a spy meant to keep an eye on the Catholic William Shakespeare. The letter was discovered by a film nerd, Albert Crosetti, working in a rare book store, along with an enigmatic young woman, Karen Rolly. The Bracegirdle papers allude to encrypted letters to his boss which reveal WS’s actions and the existence of a manuscript of a never seen play all of which are of great value. This brings in Shakespeare scholars, the Jewish-Russian mafia, Mishkin’s criminal father and all kinds of other stuff. The Bracegirdle narrative intercuts the current day drama and is great fun to read and sets up an engrossing thriller. The book goes into a lot of backstories, like why Mishkin is a lapsed Catholic, and his brother a Jesuit priest, while their dad is a Jewish gangster. Who is Ms. Rolly and what’s her lying game? The chase goes to England and finds gangsters there. Finally Crosetti is a film buff with dreams of Hollywood and spends a lot of time analyzing movies and screen plays. Clearly there is a lot to work with and some of it is interesting and a lot of fun. I thought way too much time was spent on Mishkin’s sexual addiction and Crosetti’s love for the devious Rolly did not ring true, unless we assume he is an idiot. The denouement was also slapdash, like something from a Buster Keaton movie. So there you are. A mixed bag which when weighted for pluses and minuses is sort of 31/2 stars.
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