After being deighted with "A Fine and Private Place" about thirty or more years ago, and following that Beagle book up with "The Last Unicorn", and recently reading "Tamsin", I found myself extremely disappointed with this Peter S. Beagle story.
For the first half of the book, I found myself confused by much of the plot. I also had difficulty relating emotionally or otherwise to most of the characters. Several times, I felt like throwing the book against the wall with frustration. I am glad that I soldiered through to the end. The story did straighten itself out and offered plenty of action, some tension, and its moments of pulling me into the feelings and desires of the characters. But, I was still disappointed overall. I just couldn't get into this story.
The writing style was NOT what put me off. The story was creatively told in first person from a dozen (give or take) voices. The style reminded me of creative historical documentaries on television in which elderly survivors of a historical event sit around and reminisce and tell their points of view about a certain historical event that took place many years ago. The individual narritives are broken into bits and pieces, but together grow into a story.
The problem is that so much of the story was confusing to me. Characters who were discussed through dialog were not properly introduced. I could not fugure out the major theme or conflict of the story until well past half the book.
Another thing was that Beagle usually includes moments of low-lying humor in his prose. His characters and situations usually evoke a whole range of emotions, in fact. Unfortunately, his humor was lacking here.
For the first half of the book, I found myself confused by much of the plot. I also had difficulty relating emotionally or otherwise to most of the characters. Several times, I felt like throwing the book against the wall with frustration. I am glad that I soldiered through to the end. The story did straighten itself out and offered plenty of action, some tension, and its moments of pulling me into the feelings and desires of the characters. But, I was still disappointed overall. I just couldn't get into this story.
The writing style was NOT what put me off. The story was creatively told in first person from a dozen (give or take) voices. The style reminded me of creative historical documentaries on television in which elderly survivors of a historical event sit around and reminisce and tell their points of view about a certain historical event that took place many years ago. The individual narritives are broken into bits and pieces, but together grow into a story.
The problem is that so much of the story was confusing to me. Characters who were discussed through dialog were not properly introduced. I could not fugure out the major theme or conflict of the story until well past half the book.
Another thing was that Beagle usually includes moments of low-lying humor in his prose. His characters and situations usually evoke a whole range of emotions, in fact. Unfortunately, his humor was lacking here.
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