I've Written a Novel...
Reply #18 - April 25, 2013, 03:59 PM
Long overdue review mate. And I apologise for the lack of detail and quotes in this. I actually read this a few months back, and now have a new phone which has failed to sync all of my kindle books, so yours has disappeared :(
Yeah, I enjoyed the book. Damn good price to start with, so there’s no excuse for more ppl not to give our wonderful honorary member a chance and some support by buying the book. You get the reader into the mindset of the main character, and into the mindset and lifestyles of the ex-pat community on a small island, fairly early on. Once there, it is so easy to get lost in that world. And that’s an impressive feat, considering I for one have never experienced that type of sunny, enclosed and isolated world.
There are fantastic observations and beautifully written snippets throughout the book. I can sense that these observations and witticisms are a collection of some of the lessons you have learnt in your journey in life, and it is good that you have managed to find such an enjoyable outlet for sharing those with others. Some of your lines and passages stick with the reader, makes him/her think, re-read, smile, learn and absorb. I particularly enjoyed some of your sharper one-liners, such as ‘He and I got on uncomfortably well; neither of us could work out if I wanted to screw his wife…’ {forgive the misquote mate}
There’s fantastic, patient character development throughout, particularly of the main guys involved. Because of this, you feel empathy when it needs to be felt, pity when it is needed, and detachment when it is called for. You also help instill into the reader some of the callousness and lack of sympathy that the main character feels for some of those around him. I don't think it easy to get readers lost within the attitudes and behaviors of someone who is perhaps different from themselves, but you manage that no problems.
The walls close in on the main character in classic style. You feel for him. You can see it coming. But you accept it’s inevitability, almost as much as he does himself. The one thing I would have preferred you to do differently is to perhaps stretch out this final phase, where his thoughtless actions catch up with him, and to even maybe find a way for him to escape, or at least prolong his comeuppance? But I’m a sucker for a happy ending. And you are much more stylish, level-headed and grounded in reality than I am, so the book ends as beautifully and as poetically as it started.
If the follow-up is ready, be a dear and post the link for it?
Hi
Topic: I've Written a Novel...