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D.F. Haley's Reviews > Falcon
Falcon
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by
I love Emma Bull but had somehow missed this one. Glad I finally read it. It is intensely readable, fun and carries right along. Yet in retrospect, I did have some problems with the story, the plot and the storytelling. Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for Yeats, and the author's choices of quotes were perfectly nuanced to capture the internal momentum of the "rough beast" as it lurches toward transformation. The parallels to the Easter Revolution in particular were nice.
I found the primary characters well-drawn, but somehow a bit too similar to each other. I think perhaps they needed a stronger leavening of normal people to showcase them as extraordinary. Also, I found the chief antagonist implausible, with few credible links between his supposed motives and his actual behavior in the story. I loved the internal diaries and insights into rationale behind behaviors, however over-rational they seemed to me. I think after-the-fact memoir-writing would be more idiosyncratic for each individual from whom we catch glimpses. Would they all be self-critical and introspective? I doubt it. I'd expect some rose-colored restrospectives.
This book reads as two interconnected stories. The first feels a bit stifling in tone, as the protagonist is caught up in the stiffly autocratic upper class on one hand and rabble-rousing with the proles on the other hand. The inevitable coup comes as no surprise, but the outcome does. The hero unexpectedly runs away, and not to fight another day. That, of course, enables the second half of the book.
The second part charts the journey of the hero later in life. Yet he is unexpectedly passive in action and active in repose. It reads like a fun space opera, yet the interpersonal relationships are pregnant with potential. Most are intriguing and yet not completely resolved. We are left with many questions, despite the ultimate resolution of the the primary character's tortures in transition.
Emma Bull's later books are better in many ways, but this will have a special place in my affections.
I found the primary characters well-drawn, but somehow a bit too similar to each other. I think perhaps they needed a stronger leavening of normal people to showcase them as extraordinary. Also, I found the chief antagonist implausible, with few credible links between his supposed motives and his actual behavior in the story. I loved the internal diaries and insights into rationale behind behaviors, however over-rational they seemed to me. I think after-the-fact memoir-writing would be more idiosyncratic for each individual from whom we catch glimpses. Would they all be self-critical and introspective? I doubt it. I'd expect some rose-colored restrospectives.
This book reads as two interconnected stories. The first feels a bit stifling in tone, as the protagonist is caught up in the stiffly autocratic upper class on one hand and rabble-rousing with the proles on the other hand. The inevitable coup comes as no surprise, but the outcome does. The hero unexpectedly runs away, and not to fight another day. That, of course, enables the second half of the book.
The second part charts the journey of the hero later in life. Yet he is unexpectedly passive in action and active in repose. It reads like a fun space opera, yet the interpersonal relationships are pregnant with potential. Most are intriguing and yet not completely resolved. We are left with many questions, despite the ultimate resolution of the the primary character's tortures in transition.
Emma Bull's later books are better in many ways, but this will have a special place in my affections.
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Reading Progress
December 7, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
December 7, 2013
– Shelved
Started Reading
July 24, 2015
–
Finished Reading
