It may seem odd to mention the book, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage in a book review for Lianne Moriarty's chick-lit Nine Perfect StrangersIt may seem odd to mention the book, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage in a book review for Lianne Moriarty's chick-lit Nine Perfect Strangers, but I read it Nine Perfect Strangers right afterward and couldn't help comparing the difference between the two narration styles and why I prefer a better blend of the two.
Endurance was all story. My fault with it was that because it actually happened (I suppose even if it was fiction and just fictionally happened), I needed to care more about the people it happened to. In Nine Perfect Strangers, Moriarty seems to bet it all on caring about ANYTHING that happens because she spends the first two-thirds of the book developing the characters. Nothing happens. They are at a health resort but the chapters bounce back and forth between the nine and who they are and what their background is and it's all very interesting but...something needs to happen before the book is almost over. When the action finally starts, it is interesting but....it's all tell. Something happens and it happens to all of them and....it's weird. Maybe that's my problem with it. It's just too weird. I also thought the ending was a bit too campy.
I like her writing though and have enjoyed most of her other books. I enjoyed this one but it's too character development heavy to be great. ...more
This book has some major flaws, in my opinion, but the way it was able to transport me viscerally to the Caribbean, arctic, shores of Nova Scotia, EngThis book has some major flaws, in my opinion, but the way it was able to transport me viscerally to the Caribbean, arctic, shores of Nova Scotia, England and Morocco in the 1850s gives it some major bonus points. Really, the first part of the book is hard to put down. It’s interesting and intense and well developed. The second half is all over the place with weird long winded descriptions of many unnecessary tangents. But, overall, I have never read this story before: a free-ish scarred slave who is educated and gifted but haunted and insecure. It’s a story of friendship, loyalty, love and freedom. It’s a story about a human whose life experience is nothing like my own. I love these kinds of stories. ...more
The story and the medical descriptions didn’t blend as seamlessly as Genova has managed in her other books I’ve read. I was very aware when she was giThe story and the medical descriptions didn’t blend as seamlessly as Genova has managed in her other books I’ve read. I was very aware when she was giving me I-have-a-PhD-in-neuroscience-from-Harvard information through her character suffering from ALS. It was a frustrating read...with such unhappy and flawed characters but I still grew to care about them. And the ending had me teary, although that is due to it bringing up tender memories of my own loved one. Regardless, I’ll take this well written dose of medical literary fiction over a scientific essay any day. It helped me understand the reality of ALS and it terrified me....more
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