Chandini

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Chandini is Currently Reading

Chandini is currently reading

Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)

by Brandon Sanderson (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Dec 15, 2024 05:14PM

Chandini is currently reading

Straight

by Dick Francis

bookshelves: action, crime, easy, favorites, great-britain, horses, i-own, mystery, reread, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2017

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Chandini said: " I began reading Dick Francis books at 8 or 9 years old and I haven't stopped rereading them yet. My parents were big fans of his and I got to read the books after they were done. I still remember getting into trouble and 5th grade for reading '10LB P I began reading Dick Francis books at 8 or 9 years old and I haven't stopped rereading them yet. My parents were big fans of his and I got to read the books after they were done. I still remember getting into trouble and 5th grade for reading '10LB Penalty' in class.

This is one of my favorite Francis, Mark I books. In most of his books the main character is a stoic British man in its early to mid thirties but in Straight the protagonist, Derek Franklin, is more complex than that. Yes, he is a 30-something British man, but he is not a simple stoic. He gets angry and frustrated with his brother for dying, he even calls a woman a bitch after she hits him, he is terrified of being burned alive, etc. In so many ways Derek Franklin is a real person with problems and hard to control impulses and fears.

Francis has a way of making you connect to every character in the book. Small details like a nurse disapproving of a silk shirt bring the situation with all its attendant absurdities and banal details to life. The relationship between siblings is not one I have experience with, yet I feel as though I understand what the main character is going through as his brother dies and later as he trying to straighten out his brothers affairs. I think everyone can relate to the challenges involved with a close friend or relative death. Even if most of our lives aren't quite as exciting I as the Franklin brothers certain things remain: telling their friends and coworkers, going through their mail and having to deal with any messy problems left over, etc. Francis makes this real in a way no other author, not even his son Felix Francis, could.

One thing I just don't understand about this book is the way Derek takes over the relationship his brother had with Clarissa. It just seems unlikely that a man would want to sleep with his brother's lover right after his brother had died. Still less likely is the woman wanting to sleep with anyone, especially her lover's brother, only days after her lover has died. She tells Derek that she truly loved Greville, they were "lit up inside, laughing", etc. but she's willing to sleep with Derek more than once? It feels like Francis had to shoehorn in some sort of romantic, steamy scene just to get an editor off his back.

Still one of my favorites though! ...more "

Jan 11, 2017 04:04PM · see review