Helpful Score: 6
Unlike another reviewer, I did not like this book. Initially I was very excited to read another book by this author, having just finished The Life of Pi, and even bought it new. It was a big disapointment. Perhaps it should be read with a group in a book club and discussed as it proceeds. It was hard to get into, and plodded along without much action so that it was tedious to read. The main character, Henry, meets a taxidermist who has written a play. It consists of the conversation between two animals. It is a parable of sorts for the Holocoust. This author seems to use animals in his books to portray his ideas. Then towards the ending, he describes severe, horrendous torture of one of the animals so graphically that it sickened me. If you are sensitive about the suffering of animals or graphic violence, do not read this book. Just my opinion.
Helpful Score: 3
Wow! If you read one book this year, make it this one! Beatrice & Virgil is the story of an author named Henry who struggles with writer's block. While he is struggling to write a book that is both fiction and non-fiction, he takes the time to answer his fan mail. On one fateful day, he opens a letter from a fan that includes portions of a play in progress. The play concerns one donkey named Beatrice and one Howler monkey named Virgil. Henry is drawn into the play of Beatrice and Virgil, which is fairly oozing with Holocaust themes. This is a relatively short novel of just over 200 pages, but it is a powerhouse of raw emotion, life, loss, and responsibility.
This novel is probably going to be timeless because these issues are endless and ongoing around the world, but for an interesting effect, try reading this novel with the backdrop of the recent, and controversial Arizona immigration reform act.
"We did what we could. We wrote to newspapers. We marched and protested. We voted."
This wins my vote for best book of 2010!
This novel is probably going to be timeless because these issues are endless and ongoing around the world, but for an interesting effect, try reading this novel with the backdrop of the recent, and controversial Arizona immigration reform act.
"We did what we could. We wrote to newspapers. We marched and protested. We voted."
This wins my vote for best book of 2010!
Helpful Score: 1
I loved The Life of Pi, what a disappointment this book was!! The novel gets more depressing and graphic as the book nears it's conclusion, to the point of revulsion - it is one of the worse novels I've read.
Helpful Score: 1
Because of "Pi," I bought this book in hardcover the day it came out. When the panning began, I moved it to the bottom of the stack. Until last month, when I decided to skim it or sell it. Then I read it in one sitting.
I found a brilliant, daring, cunningly imagined, and beautifully written novel. Not always easy, not always pretty, had to skip some searing descriptions near the end, but an absolute tour de force, with echoes of "Waiting for Godot."
If it's literature you're looking for, look no further.
I found a brilliant, daring, cunningly imagined, and beautifully written novel. Not always easy, not always pretty, had to skip some searing descriptions near the end, but an absolute tour de force, with echoes of "Waiting for Godot."
If it's literature you're looking for, look no further.
I like the triviality of the beginning of the book. I found myself asking, what is the point? But when the "point" finally hit me, it hit me all the harder. The childlike storytelling is in extreme contrast to the actual subject matter, and the fact that it takes Henry a while to "get it" as well is a wonderful representation of how the world "chose" to not get it either. This book is a MUST READ!!
Could not get into this book. The character was dull, the story went no place, and you just didn't care enough to keep reading. Passed it on without finishing, which for me who usually finishes books no matter what, was a big deal.
It is amazing to see the imagination that Yann Martel has and how he puts it into a story. That's what kept me going through most of this book. However, I found it lacking in suspense and wondering what would happen next.
Let me preface this with the confession that I did not read Life of Pi. That being said, I did not go into this book thinking about how it would measure up against Martel's earlier work. I really did not like this book very much. I did not like that it was written in one long chapter. I did not like the two main characters having the same name. When we first met the taxidermist my first thought was this is Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, run before he puts you in a pit and wants you to rub the lotion on the skin. I did enjoy the injections of conversation between Beatrice and Virgil, the donkey and monkey who are the main characters in the taxidermists play. If the entire book were to have been this play I would have enjoyed it much more. Read it if you must, it was a really fast read but read it with a grain of salt. It is a play within a book written in diary form with main characters that are not very interesting. Martel tries to use tricks to capture our attention. And lest I forget, the horrible games at the end are very disturbing, I did not find them thought provoking, I just found them awful.
