The Nightingale

-by Kristin Hannah

(epub)

It appears I am not the only one perplexed by the acclaim this book has received by countless reviewers. Granted, the novel is well-liked by those responding to something in the story that evidently touched them personally; however, I failed to have such an experience.

While the struggles and trials of the characters are weighty, the writing was such that it lent neither power, nor a moving quality to them. The characters themselves seemed two-dimensional and ultimately, failed to strike a chord. 

While facts and events surrounding WWII were obviously quite well-researched, the tale itself was over-written and melodramatic, lacking in depth. The tepid, clichéd writing style was overly distracting and, at times, downright cheesy. The reader is all but told what to feel by the author, with copious adverbs and adjectives, which merely detracted from a plot that actually had a lot of potential. I'll be giving her other books a miss.

JPod

JPod
-by Douglas Coupland
448 pages (2005)

Book Rule #15: Sequels are always disappointing.

Coupland’s' JPod is no exception to that rule. Although never blatantly publicized as a ‘sequel’, it is hypothetically purported to be Coupland’s new millennia answer to his early 1990s geek epic, Microserfs.

My comparison, Microserfs vs. JPod, in short?

Microserfs, in my opinion, was Coupland’s zenith of writing aptitude — fresh and original with ‘real’ characters that many a geek could relate to. The microserfs made you want to care about what happened to them. The story actually went somewhere.

JPod? Stale as 3-week-old bread, artificial as Twin Equal ‘sugar’ packets, featuring two-dimensional unbelievable characters. Gone are the refreshingly all-too-human disillusioned "microserfs" with their witty repertoires and flat foods. They are replaced with JPod'ers — dusky, gutter-mouthed and aimless, with their couldn’t-care-less-about-anything attitudes. The result? We could care less about them. Coupled with an implausible, over-the-top, and insipid plot, it is a novel that evokes apathy and indfference. Coupland’s frequent referrals (blatant plugs) to his other works of fiction were uncomfortable and tawdry.

Not that there weren’t any redeeming qualities in the book. The reader is treated to a few remaining bits of Microserfs-esque laurels — the memoir-like narrative, the fun cubicle surveys (“if you were to sell yourself as an item on eBay”) and splash pages with binary, spam, and technical what-not. However, it was not enough to compensate for JPod's weak plot and characters, which ultimately made the novel uninteresting and difficult to finish. As much as I wanted to like it, I didn’t. At all.

It was mentioned by a friend and fellow Microserf-aficionado that it’s “harder for authors to write like disenchanted young people when they have been rich and famous for 20 years.”

I agree 101% and couldn’t put it better myself.

07/15/2006

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code 
-by Dan Brown
454 pages (2003) 



disappointing and over-done

After the renowned curator of the Louvre has been found murdered inside the museum, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon teams up with French police cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, to uncover an ancient secret that many are willing to die to protect. Secret societies and baffling ciphers are encountered as they track an intricate trail of clues ingeniously hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. International intrigue and the obligatory danger ensues.

Where I’m usually one to avoid something that seems to be popular amongst the masses, this time I was curious to see what all the hype was about regarding Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Remind me never again to follow suit. 

All brawn and no brains. The Da Vinci Code seems to be a testimony to such a statement. The plot, while  multifarious, in-depth, and complicated, feels forced and reads like an implausible made-for-tv screenplay, falling deftly between a Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones sequel.

The entire scheme of the book is over-written, the style predicable and prosaic, and the characters somewhat two-dimensional. Amidst the blatant social statements and ambitious manifestos against established religion in general, Brown seems to have forgotten the all important writer's mantra that "less is more."

Where the novel was somewhat diverting, I wouldn’t recommend it for those looking for a invigorating mind exercise of any kind. In my humble opinion, it is just another bit of modern fluff incognito, using Leonardo Da Vinci as an imposing smoke-screen attempting, unsuccessfully, to be clever.

02/14/2005

The Last Good Day

The Last Good Day
-by Peter Blauner
432 pages  (2003) 

forgettable mystery, un-thrilling thriller

The Last Good Day, a tepid less-than-riveting mystery/thriller, is Blauner’s unsuccessful attempt at creating a believable tense backdrop of New York suburban life shortly after September 11, 2001. While some parts of the storyline ‘hold water’, the majority of the novel lays fallow and unfortunately fails to deliver on almost every level imaginable. 

The various not-so-subtle references to 9-11 are not apropos to the plot, and as a result, appear to be a flimsy attempt to draw curious readers possibly scouting for terrorist intrigue. The shallow two-dimensional, and often gutter-mouthed, characters fail to engage the reader, and only highlight the carelessly constructed plot which is neither absorbing or captivating.

Is it just me or does Last Good Day read like a tacky made-for-TV movie? It certainly meets all the criteria, which seem blatantly placed there to appeal to the so-called 'trendy'...far too melodramatic, ladder-climbing elitists, gratuitous severity, and obscenities too proliferate to excuse. Take my advice and give this one a pass.

Any redeeming qualities to the novel? The photo on the cover is nice...

- reviewed for Time Warner books