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A book with more than 500 pages: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Written by Michael Chabon. Fourth Estate Limited (UK), 2000. Audio narrated by David Colacci.
I started by listening to the audio but finished the last hundred and fifty pages reading. Colacci performs well, but holy cow, does he read slowly. I first heard of it when Cumberbatch was asked at a Sherlock PBS event what project he'd like to make happen, and he mentioned bringing K&C out of development hell. As with A Discovery of Witches and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I started and didn't really connect with the story, so I put it down. As with the other two books, I was able to get into it via audio.
This book really is an adventure, and while the view point shifts to show Rosa's, Sammy's, and Joe's thoughts and feelings -- though it's always third person -- I get the feeling that Sammy is the real protagonist. Or perhaps it was just me identifying with him. Joe does amazing things before he even meets his cousin, he's a talented artist, he goes off to Antarctica during the war, but Sam is the creative force who keeps his head down, works hard, deals with the fallout of Joe's choices, and lives quietly and unhappily while he does it. It's almost like Joe is a character Sammy invented. The superhero goes off and does the things his or her creator only dreams of. It's not a nice, neat ending, either; I was both satisfied and frustrated by the end of the book: Sam has taken a step towards what could be a mundane life or an adventure that might be as incredible as Joe's was, but we don't get to see it.
*shrug* That's about as deep as I get when it comes to these things.
Onward and upward: I'm waiting on the library to deliver audio books, so I will read Anne and Zlata for the time being. It'll be nice not to lug the enormous K&C tome around.
I started by listening to the audio but finished the last hundred and fifty pages reading. Colacci performs well, but holy cow, does he read slowly. I first heard of it when Cumberbatch was asked at a Sherlock PBS event what project he'd like to make happen, and he mentioned bringing K&C out of development hell. As with A Discovery of Witches and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I started and didn't really connect with the story, so I put it down. As with the other two books, I was able to get into it via audio.
This book really is an adventure, and while the view point shifts to show Rosa's, Sammy's, and Joe's thoughts and feelings -- though it's always third person -- I get the feeling that Sammy is the real protagonist. Or perhaps it was just me identifying with him. Joe does amazing things before he even meets his cousin, he's a talented artist, he goes off to Antarctica during the war, but Sam is the creative force who keeps his head down, works hard, deals with the fallout of Joe's choices, and lives quietly and unhappily while he does it. It's almost like Joe is a character Sammy invented. The superhero goes off and does the things his or her creator only dreams of. It's not a nice, neat ending, either; I was both satisfied and frustrated by the end of the book: Sam has taken a step towards what could be a mundane life or an adventure that might be as incredible as Joe's was, but we don't get to see it.
*shrug* That's about as deep as I get when it comes to these things.
Onward and upward: I'm waiting on the library to deliver audio books, so I will read Anne and Zlata for the time being. It'll be nice not to lug the enormous K&C tome around.