en-US Mon, 20 Aug 2018 19:52:21 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 39676520 A Ladder to the Sky shows how easy it is to achieve the world if you are prepared to sacrifice your soul.

If you look hard enough, you can find stories pretty much anywhere. They don’t even have to be your own. Or so would-be writer Maurice Swift decides very early on in his career. A chance encounter in a Berlin hotel with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann gives him an opportunity to ingratiate himself with someone more powerful than him. For Erich is lonely, and he has a story to tell. Whether or not he should do so is another matter entirely.

Once Maurice has made his name, he sets off in pursuit of other people’s stories. He doesn’t care where he finds them � or to whom they belong � as long as they help him rise to the top. Stories will make him famous but they will also make him beg, borrow and steal. They may even make him do worse.]]> 368 John Boyne switterbug (Betsey) 5 next-up
The book covers 1988 to the present, from Berlin to London to NYC, and honorable mention of other European cities. Each section includes Maurice, who is aspiring to become a towering, celebrity author and distinguished literary prizewinner. It doesn’t take long to conclude that this ambitious writer is a textbook narcissist. He is also a physically beautiful creature, which works in his favor to manipulate the men and women he encounters and becomes involved with throughout the story.

I think of the narrative anatomy as resembling a fully open circle of a folding fan. In the rivet pin is Maurice Swift, with the cast of characters assembled around him like the connecting leaves. The story pivots around Maurice. The titled chapters and sections cover the core people in Swift’s life chronologically, and whatever happened earlier or offstage is nimbly incorporated into the story.

One of my favorite scenes starts in the first hundred pages. It’s almost a meta- interlude of writers on writing, with some casual celebrity name-dropping that Boyne must have winked while he wrote! Maurice’s character is still in the infant stages of success. He’s invited with an author-benefactor to the Amalfi Coast to visit Gore Vidal, who, as written by Boyne, does a scintillating cameo. It is soon apparent to Gore that he may have met the younger version of himself. The barbed dialogue between Gore and Swift drolly exhibits their competition, but Gore has wisdom and experience on his side. At one point, after besting Maurice, Gore relished the response on the young man’s face, but was unable to interpret it precisely. “Why, he thought, he could write a thousand words on that expression alone.�

This juicy and dazzling novel gripped me right at hello, but candidly speaking, the middle section began to trouble me at times. After such a nuanced opening, it became too predictable and on the nose. Maurice’s cunning became familiar, permitting me to anticipate his stealthy moves, especially with the aid of some heavy-handed foreshadowing. It seemed below Boyne’s refinement as a writer. But I’m not complaining anymore, and I can’t tell you why. But, if you feel that happening to you while reading, just go with it--you won’t be disappointed. Boyne is ultimately wise and wily.

A LADDER TO THE SKY is a tightly focused, well plotted, page-turning story and cautionary morality tale that demonstrates that Boyne is not limited as a writer. Invisible Furies had a consummately winning Irish setting and expanding number of characters (despite some key departures to Europe and the US), but it kept its parochial color, even as the backdrop became more sophisticated. Ladder, however, is almost entirely urbane, cinematic, tailored for American film. No complaints, however. I’m already casting the characters and selecting the director of my choice. This book will please popular and literary audiences alike. 4.5 rounded up]]> 4.28 2018
author: John Boyne
name: switterbug (Betsey)
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/08/09
date added: 2018/08/20
shelves: next-up
review:
After I read Irish author John Boyne’s last book, THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES, I was hooked. The primary theme was about family—the ones you are born with and the ones you create, as well as the redemptive power of the human spirit. Boyne’s prose is warm, accessible, thoroughly engaging, and page-turning. He manages to fuse the métier of writing literature with the pacing and excitement of mainstream storytelling, without forfeiting originality or artistic expression. A LADDER TO THE SKY, a suspenseful novel about the art of writing, will captivate old fans and engender new ones. You’re in for a treat by a sinister villain, Maurice Swift, who possesses a virile magnetism and a narcissist’s nature.

The book covers 1988 to the present, from Berlin to London to NYC, and honorable mention of other European cities. Each section includes Maurice, who is aspiring to become a towering, celebrity author and distinguished literary prizewinner. It doesn’t take long to conclude that this ambitious writer is a textbook narcissist. He is also a physically beautiful creature, which works in his favor to manipulate the men and women he encounters and becomes involved with throughout the story.

I think of the narrative anatomy as resembling a fully open circle of a folding fan. In the rivet pin is Maurice Swift, with the cast of characters assembled around him like the connecting leaves. The story pivots around Maurice. The titled chapters and sections cover the core people in Swift’s life chronologically, and whatever happened earlier or offstage is nimbly incorporated into the story.

One of my favorite scenes starts in the first hundred pages. It’s almost a meta- interlude of writers on writing, with some casual celebrity name-dropping that Boyne must have winked while he wrote! Maurice’s character is still in the infant stages of success. He’s invited with an author-benefactor to the Amalfi Coast to visit Gore Vidal, who, as written by Boyne, does a scintillating cameo. It is soon apparent to Gore that he may have met the younger version of himself. The barbed dialogue between Gore and Swift drolly exhibits their competition, but Gore has wisdom and experience on his side. At one point, after besting Maurice, Gore relished the response on the young man’s face, but was unable to interpret it precisely. “Why, he thought, he could write a thousand words on that expression alone.�

This juicy and dazzling novel gripped me right at hello, but candidly speaking, the middle section began to trouble me at times. After such a nuanced opening, it became too predictable and on the nose. Maurice’s cunning became familiar, permitting me to anticipate his stealthy moves, especially with the aid of some heavy-handed foreshadowing. It seemed below Boyne’s refinement as a writer. But I’m not complaining anymore, and I can’t tell you why. But, if you feel that happening to you while reading, just go with it--you won’t be disappointed. Boyne is ultimately wise and wily.

A LADDER TO THE SKY is a tightly focused, well plotted, page-turning story and cautionary morality tale that demonstrates that Boyne is not limited as a writer. Invisible Furies had a consummately winning Irish setting and expanding number of characters (despite some key departures to Europe and the US), but it kept its parochial color, even as the backdrop became more sophisticated. Ladder, however, is almost entirely urbane, cinematic, tailored for American film. No complaints, however. I’m already casting the characters and selecting the director of my choice. This book will please popular and literary audiences alike. 4.5 rounded up
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