Lelu > Recent Status Updates

Reading this very slowly because 1) I knit instead of reading and 2) after reading a page of this book I get so sleepy. Ach, Weltklasseliteratur…

More than halfway through. I really don’t like this book. Has an editor laid even one eye on it? Endless unnecessary paragraphs and confusing characters. Miriam, set up as unlikable and untrustworthy, suddenly has this backstory that feels as if the author thought of it at page 150 and ran with it. Adam had potential, but bores me to death at this stage. And don’t event get me started on this Turing character.

Not gonna lie, most of the book so far has been very boring. McEwan loses the plot in endless paragraphs about God knows what and I simply didn’t see the point nor was it easy to follow. But now that he has finally picked up the plot it’s good.

Let’s all be proud that I didn’t let this horrendous cover deter me from reading this book. Trust the author.

I picked this book up in a library for the first time two days ago and when I read the opening paragraph I immediately put it back because I couldn’t believe anyone would actually choose this kind of narrator. Today I decided to give it a go and I think it’s brilliant.

What an amazing chapter on retribution after the war ended. I don’t know how I just passively accepted that all but a few nazis disappeared after May 1945. 700.000 Austrians were still in the NSDAP when the war ended, plus 8.000.000 German Nazis. Not to speak of Italy, France, Romania…These countries were rebuilt by Nazis and the political powers in the West and in the East knew how to cater to them. Crazy!

I am as surprised as anyone that I am reading a full fledged history book and enjoying in thoroughly. The sheer scope of what we weren’t taught in school and what is not in the general public’s knowledge is worrisome, especially since it makes us believe in false histories, which haunt us today.
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What a brilliant chapter!

My favorite genre of books, I am re-discovering here, are stories that span over generations and many decades. Can’t even say how in awe I am of this book at this stage!

(Side note, I just started reading my first book by Susan Sontag and her name came up in this book. Love how many cultural and historical touch points are in this story, it makes everything feel so real)

I didn’t like anything about this book at first, but almost 300 pages in and I can’t put it down, it’s so good.

The way this book jumps between storylines and characters is wild

Didn’t know a chapter about a turtle could get to me so much