a couple of people have somehow, miraculously, stumbled across my blog! So I thought I'd better post something. The freshest thing I have is that I finished reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Dawkins last night. It's on our local library's Mystery Book Club list soon, if not next meeting, so even though I originally requested it because I'd read a review, now it also saves me from having to say about Yet Another Club Selection, "I didn't read it." (There have been some problems with the list. They're getting straightened out. I am not the only one who's rejected The List.)
Anyway - I spent most of this book being really irritated with the main character. As in, if I wasn't bloody well DETERMINED to finish a damn book for the club, I probably would have quit somewhere about page 100. This is a personal thing (of course) I mean it's not because it's not well-written - it is *very* well-written - and it's not because the plot didn't make sense or was inconsistent or unbelieveable. The author did a terrific job, actually. She also used multiple points of view but the changes were clearly marked, and she used present tense which should have been distracting, but it wasn't at all.
No, it was me, and it's a fault I recognize in myself in real life, too: I don't like spending time with people who have character traits of my own which I also hate. This probably isn't unique to me. And maybe my irritation with them is a sign that I really need to work on myself a lot more. (I can hear you: "Ya THINK?")
Also, I'm not someone who tries to figure out the solution to mystery novels. I just go along for the ride. I mean, if I figure out whodunnit, the author has made it thumpingly obvious. In this one, I did NOT see the answer coming. I think I said out loud, "Well damn."
So I can recommend this book because it's very well-written, I think it's a good mystery, and the problems I had with it I believe are all my own. Go for it!
my interests, updated: science fiction, mysteries, science, history, and science history; and Paris and writing and sketching and knitting and sewing and, oh, whatever else comes up
3 comments:
I am intrigued by your review. And I understand your point. Sometimes we read things in fiction that can make us uncomfortable; sometimes those things are mirrors.
I think I will look for a copy of the book. Your effective reader-response review persuades me that the book might be a worthwhile reading adventure.
Thanks, Robert. I think you'll like this book.
I have already visited my local library's Kindle offerings, I have placed a "hold" request to borrow a Kindle copy. But, alas, I am in a queue of over a hundred who are waiting for the book; it must be worthwhile, so I will wait (albeit impatiently).
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