A Bookish Blog
This novel was fun and a fast read, plus it gave me much to think about. This is a smart book, but it is not for everyone, and I’m glad the author didn’t water it down or try to write for the lowest common denominator, instead writing an excellent story.
Mr. Gaiman is a master of the modern fairytale, abstractly manipulating physics and using legends as histories (“It all depends on how you look at it”)
Zev Bronfman, an angry atheist who was brought up in a Hassidic home escapes death from a falling beam. This near death experience was a wakeup call for Zev, who leaves his parents for a not-so-lucrative job as a cab driver in New York City.
e protagonist of the book, an art dealer named Giovanni Fabrizzi, finds an old painting of an Italian Count that starts talking to him. The picture tells Giovanni that it was painted by famed artist Sandro Botticelli and its history from the 15th Century to the 20th Century when it was stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis.
About: Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith is an engaging novel which is thought provoking with an interesting premise. This is Mr. Smith’s debut novel. 384 pages Publisher: Atria Books Language: English ISBN-10: 1476730539 My rating for Forty Acres – 4 Buy […]
The author sets the stage early, Lt. Col. Quentin Margont, the pragmatist protagonist, sees the world in black and white, the political weasel Talleyrand who only sees shades of grey and dances political circles Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, whose ego gets in the way of him seeing reality.
Ben Mendelssohn wants to be reunited with his belated wife, he will do anything to be with her again and on his birthday he puts a bullet in his head to accomplish the task. When Ben enters the Other World he discovers that finding a person among the millions who occupy the realm is not an easy task.
This book has a lot to offer, it is a war story, a coming of age triumph, a serious look at the Siege of Leningrad with lots of humor and best of all, historically accurate. I enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it wholly.
Even though I liked this book, and it is a well written novel, the message the author tries attempts to send (personal forgiveness and redemption) seems a bit heavy handed at times and the ending, which to me was mostly predictable. The author handles multiple timelines well and even though the chapters not only jump from time, but also to a different place and characters it all seems to fit and not disjointed at all.
There are many well described aspects which surround the story: familial roles, household chores division, raising children, religion and more. The author tries to accentuate the harshness that some women have in their life and that no matter what they’ll do, they’ll never get ahead because of how they grew up and /or who they were born to.
