This novel makes me want to learn more about Cuba. Ruins is about an "old" man who was once a young revolutionary. Living in Havana in the early 1990sThis novel makes me want to learn more about Cuba. Ruins is about an "old" man who was once a young revolutionary. Living in Havana in the early 1990s, he conflicted between his persisting belief in the Revolution and the wasteland that Cuba has become and which nearly all of the Cubans in the novel want to escape. The book ended a little too soon for me, with a family mystery which was never quite resolved, but I still really enjoyed it. ...more
Wonderful book. I read most of it at work and I had to work at keeping myself both from laughing out loud and from dissolving into tears. Amazing charWonderful book. I read most of it at work and I had to work at keeping myself both from laughing out loud and from dissolving into tears. Amazing characters. I recommend it to anyone....more
Good book. I really liked the first and last sections of the book, but felt that the middle section dragged a bit. Miriam's character, while interestiGood book. I really liked the first and last sections of the book, but felt that the middle section dragged a bit. Miriam's character, while interesting and fiery in contrast to Olgivanna in the first section, is just unlikable in the second section. Many reviewers dislike the reverse chronology of the book, but I thought it was a very good plot device. You always know what the story is moving backwards to, but when you get there it is still devastating. Finally, I thought that I would get annoyed with the footnotes throughout the novel, but I found that I really liked them, and I loved the character of Tadashi. I would love for T.C. Boyle to write him his own novel....more
Amazingly good book - very funny, sad, poignant. Full of little bits of wisdom on race and identity and being a teenager. I wanted to write parts of iAmazingly good book - very funny, sad, poignant. Full of little bits of wisdom on race and identity and being a teenager. I wanted to write parts of it down in my journal - and I probably will later. ...more
I like Graham Swift, but I didn't really get into this book until about halfway through. Maybe because of the historical tone of this book, none of thI like Graham Swift, but I didn't really get into this book until about halfway through. Maybe because of the historical tone of this book, none of the characters are fully developed to my taste, even the narrator, whose thoughts and feelings we rarely know. That said, I did like the novel, particularly the theme of story-telling and the actual story-telling in the second half of the book. ...more
Loading...
