Geraldine Brooks
368 pages
Reason for Reading: Pub'08 Challenge, Interest.
From the Publisher:
"In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book's mysteries."
My Thoughts:
I have read one other book by Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders, which I liked, so I had high expectations for this book.
When I first started reading People of the Book I was sure it was on track to be one of my top reads of the year. There were places where I stopped to make notes of things that I wanted to remember:
"Of course, a book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand. The gold beaters, the stone grinders, the scribes, the binders, those are the people I feel most comfortable with. Sometimes, in the quiet, these people speak to me. They let me see what their intentions were, and it helps me do my work." - People of the Book, pg 19However, somewhere in the middle the story just started to lose momentum for me and I started to have trouble keeping the different storylines straight.
"All of you, from the safe world, with your air bags and your tamper-proof packaging and your fat-free diets. You are the superstitious ones. You convince yourself you can cheat death, and you are absolutely offended when you learn that you can't. You sat in your nice little flat all through our war and watched us, bleeding all over the TV news. And you though, 'How Awful!' and then you got up and made yourself another cup of gourmet coffee."-People of the Book, pg 37
I love the concept of a story told about an ancient text and I felt like I got a good snapshot of what was going on in each time period I visited. For that reason alone, I am glad I read this book. I love history. However, I found that the characters in some instances were not what I was hoping they would be and I was disappointed.
Maybe my expectations were too high but this was just okay to me. (3/5)
7 comments:
That's disappointing to hear! I absolutely loved Year of Wonders and was hoping this would be as good....
SmallWorld
Your review reminds me of the one Wendy sent out from the NYT - sort of a mixed review. I am still waiting for my copy from the library, but I can definitely wait, especially after reading your review!
=) Jill
http://mrstreme.livejournal.com
Oh, that *is* disappointing. This one seems to be getting some very mixed reviews. I'm trying to keep an open mind until I read it myself *laughs*
Everything I have seen has been pretty positive about this book. I really liked Year of Wonders (except for the ending) and March, so I will still be reading this! Thanks for the review.
Sarah- I really liked Year of Wonders too but this just didn't live up to it, IMHO.
Jill, Wendy and Marg- I hope you like it. Reading is so personal!
I am sorry you were disappointed. I hope to read this one day--probably in paperback. I will try and keep my expectations down.
I was hoping this book would be better. I really liked 'Year of Wonders" but didn't care much for "March." The storyline did capture my attention though.
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