A Bookish Blog
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.
Ms. Crawford wrote an amusing book, easy to read, quick, intelligent and often funny. The author even made me like some of the most spoiled kids the protagonist was engaged with, as well as a few pointers on writing essays (and if you follow my blog you know that there is certainly a lot left to be desired).
The story takes place over a course of about 12 hours, but much of the story is told in flashbacks and memories which are triggered by external events which the protagonist, a flier named Leslie Mason, experiences. Mason is experiencing a profound sense of loss almost every waking moment due to his luck of having survived many missions, but loosing many friends who did not have such good fortune. In his depressed state, Mason is concerned only with the present and survival, not concerned about past or future.
I did not read this book in English, which gave me a different perspective on the Harry Hole novels. For example, the name itself in English is Harry Hole, but translated in another language with different emphasis and sounds it is more like Hari Hølā (Hoo-laa), a little point which I really enjoyed. Of course, the Norwegian names were difficult to pronounce, but that is part of the charm of translated novels.
