Helpful Score: 2
I was not captivated, but I enjoyed reading about a time and a place that I had not encountered before. France, after the fall of Algeria is not a setting I expected to feel at home in, but Claire Messud does a fine job.
Helpful Score: 1
Eh. I don't get the hoopla over this book. Average at best. I had to push myself to finish it.
Helpful Score: 1
Gorgeous writing, and I enjoyed all but the last 1/8th of the book or so. I'm honestly not sure whether the story lost steam, or whether I did. Worth reading for the lovely prose alone.
A story about a French Algerian family by an Algerian American. First novel, good reviews.
Nice interweaving of one family's stories, told from the perspective of the daughter.
Author had beautiful insight into human emotions and the writing was exquisite because of it, in many, many, places throughout the book. Mesmerizing writing many times over. The story was captivating, although I freely admit by the middle I was thinking it was going on too long--it was interesting also to me to be made to understand how a person who migrates to the U.S. might never really ever be feeling like an American, but faking it and going through the motions to try to fit in and always in their mind seeing home as somewhere else. While it was beautifully written, I asked myself 'would I recommend it to a friend to read?' and found my answer was 'no', simply because I don't pass on books that are depressing.
***The book I have for swap has some worn pages and a worn cover from beach reading. Please let me know If this will be a problem - it it still in good condition***
But this book was average, it meandered quite a bit and I never could grasp the true story. For this reason, it was slow reading and I was finding myself reading the same page over and over to understand some things.
But this book was average, it meandered quite a bit and I never could grasp the true story. For this reason, it was slow reading and I was finding myself reading the same page over and over to understand some things.
