I won this book in the giveaways. On the whole I liked it, and for a debut novel I would say it's very good. Daisy, an English fashion writer, and IsabI won this book in the giveaways. On the whole I liked it, and for a debut novel I would say it's very good. Daisy, an English fashion writer, and Isabelle, a French academic, swap flats for a year, and at the same time they seem to swap friends and lifestyles. My issues with the book started on page 1 of the first Chapter, where there is a whole email written in French. As this is an English language book, I would have liked a translation. There are also sentences in French scattered throughout the book, with no translation, which could leave the reader feeling lost. By about page 200, I was getting bored and almost stopped reading the book. I was having a hard time dealing with the stilted humour and the one dimensional, unoriginal, stereotypical characters. For example, Chrissie, the over-the-top gay fashion designer, and Jules, the depressed Goth. Perhaps a better skilled comedy writer could have pulled these off, but comedy is not easy to write, and in this case most of the book reads like a bad BBC sitcom. Also, at one point in the novel (probably because the author has not accounted for the passing of time clearly enough) there seemed to quite a lot of bed-hopping, which left me feeling a bit nauseous.
By now, you are probably thinking I didn't like the book, but that's not true. I'm pleased to say, that as the book progresses the quality of the writing does get better, and you can even get used to the odd characters. They grow on you.
On the plus side, there was a good storyline, which kept me interested. I was intrigued by the story about the writer Meredith Quince, who had written a lost, unpublished book, which Isabelle was trying to find. I loved the Epilogue, which in my opinion, was the best part of the book. If I was reviewing that on its own, I would give it 5 stars; it is very romantic and a lovely ending to the book. All in all, I would say 'Finding Monsieur Right' is quite entertaining, and if you can get past the first half of the book, there's lots to like about the novel.
I did like this book, but it fell short of a really satisfying read for a few reasons. It may be that much of the essence of the story was lost in theI did like this book, but it fell short of a really satisfying read for a few reasons. It may be that much of the essence of the story was lost in the translation. I found the structure of the book a bit disjointed, and it was frustrating that there were no speechmarks, so it was difficult to tell if someone was speaking, or when the speaking stopped. The story is about a man, Arminto, who squanders his inheritance and spends his life waiting for and searching for a lost love. There are many references to myths and legends, in particular the legend of The Enchanted City, submerged under the sea. Parts of the book were very poignant and inspired, but the quality of the writing was not consistent; sometimes I would find myself very absorbed in the story, and other times I was trying to work out what was happening and why the narrator appeared to be skipping haphazardly from one point in time to another. Maybe the author meant the writing to be like this? After all, it is a tale being narrated by an elderly man who may or may not have become senile. However, I would have preferred a more fluent read. I was also disappointed by the ending, which to me seemed contrived. The highlight of the book for me was the poem at the beginning, 'The City' by C.P. Cavafy, which is also referred to in the main story. ...more
I won this book in a giveaway. I entered the giveaway because from reading the blurb this book sounded like it would be very insightful, perhaps inspiI won this book in a giveaway. I entered the giveaway because from reading the blurb this book sounded like it would be very insightful, perhaps inspirational. Unfortunately I was disappointed. Along with the book, the author kindly sent me copies of newsletters from Phoenix Community Care, a project he is associated with in North London which helps disadvantaged people in the UK and worldwide. I am very impressed by the work undertaken by Adrian Hawkes from reading the newsletters, and have admiration for him and the work he does. If I was reviewing the newsletters I would give him 5 stars, but here I am reviewing the book 'Jacob, A fatherless Generation.' I feel that the book will not achieve what the author would like it to, and that it is a missed opportunity to get an important message across. It is clear from the charitable work that Adrian Hawkes does that he is a person keen to improve our world and to inspire people to make a change in their own lives to bring about change in the world in general. Unfortunately, I feel that any young people reading the book may be put off by the condescending tone in which the book is written. At times it reads as though you are listening to a lecture by someone's dad complaining about the youth of today and how they are unwittingly building an unhappy future for themselves. There are a couple of contradictions in the book which I could not get around. Firstly, on the one hand the author is telling us that the 'post-modern' generation i.e. young people today, are only interested in the here and now and being happy and that they should be looking more to history to see how we got here, but then he later goes on to congratulate the young for living in the present rather than doing what his generation did, and missing out on being happy in the present because they were worried about the future. Also, I didn't really like the way the church is being criticised in the book. The idea is to get young people more involved in religion and in believing in Jesus and God, but he has found many things wrong with the fundamental basis of the church. I don't think we can set a good example to people as Christians where we are saying that the bible and the church as it stands is not working. I believe that the problem we face is that there are many people in today's world who are not aware of the importance of religion and faith in God, which then causes the problems. Also, he states that this 'post modern' generation are the most fatherless generation ever, not only fatherless in that they don't believe in God as the father, but that there are more one-parent families without fathers etc. and he seems to be laying the blame for their behaviour e.g. promiscuity, on them, rather than looking back and blaming generations before them who in fact led to this current 'fatherless' generation. This seems hypocritical. I read the book before I read the newsletters and didn't like it at all, but then when I read the newsletters I decided to read the book again. In doing so, I found that because I knew where the author was coming from (i.e. from reading his newsletters) I could appreciate his views. This tells me that not enough effort was put into writing the book in order to get his very important message across i.e. that every small change we make in our own lives can in some way change the world for the better. Perhaps with a rewrite, with a good editor this could become an important book and could inspire the next generation, but as it stands I'm afraid it's more likely to scare them away. ...more
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