Wednesday Reading Meme 2019-2
Since I just finished a book yesterday and it happens to be Wednesday, I'm resurrecting this book meme... I also documented my day yesterday for glimpseatmyday so I'll try to get that posted soon, as well as a general update about the past couple of days.
2019 books finished: 3
Just read
Grand Hotel Europa - Leonard Ilja Pfeijffer: Our book club pick. The premise sounded really good - a writer checks in to the classy, old but dilapidated Grand Hotel Europa to think and write about the end of his relationship with the love of his life - and the book got great reviews/won prizes.
I liked how the story switched between the present at Grand Hotel Europa and the past in Venice with the girlfriend. I liked the little stories within the story, like the protagonists' search for a lost masterwork by Caravaggio (though it's quite telling that the most Dan Brown-esque part of the story was my favourite part).
Overall though, I didn't think it was a good book. It was overly long and not even as well written as reviewers would have us believe ; the endless mentions of Italian street names wasn't as much impressive as boring (like reading directions on Google Maps), and then there were the great literary comparisons like "her titties were like titties". It's a verbose book, but that doesn't mean it's good.
There was the main character's sexism throughout the book that served no purpose - even more frustrating because it was combined with too many words trying to convince the reader that the main character is not an awful bag of dicks, whilst acting like an awful bag of dicks. There's the continual sexualisation of every woman in the book with the sole exception of the very elderly owner of the hotel, always describing women's bodies by using diminutive forms of words, talking down to women in ways that are very much "haha I will say something in such a way that sounds like I agree with you, but in reality I believe myself to be superior and you're too dumb to notice."
Also, the actual theme of the book is the author's conviction that Europe (as a continent) is past its prime, decaying, and is being destroyed by mass tourism from China and the United States. It's an interesting topic, but literally every character the protagonist meets in the book completely agrees with him and has A LOT to say about this topic, from a mysterious hotel guest who once belonged to the European upper-classes to the taxi driver who brings him to a restaurant, they're all parrots who agree with the author's opinion. They're not so much actual, living people than walking Wikipedia pages who all happen to have extensive encyclopedian knowledge about studies, numbers and graphs that endorse the author's opinions.
Anyway, I didn't mean to write out an extensive review of the book and so I'll stop here - it's just good to have these thoughts written down somewhere so I'll remember them when I have to go discuss this book at the book club in two weeks. A lot of people seem to really love this book and think it's so amazing, so I'm kinda hoping some of the book club members love it as well so I can ask them: "BUT WHY THO?"
Reading
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood: Since I don't know yet what our next book for the book club will be, I picked up a book I was already reading before I started on Grand Hotel Europa. I enjoyed the TV series 'Alias Grace', but to be honest I'm not all that into the book (yet). It kind of bothers me that the main character (the doctor) keeps getting a hard-on for every single female character he encounters, including his patient ... that's gross.
Up next
The next book club pick, whichever book that may be.
Okay, time to get back to work ...
2019 books finished: 3
Just read
Grand Hotel Europa - Leonard Ilja Pfeijffer: Our book club pick. The premise sounded really good - a writer checks in to the classy, old but dilapidated Grand Hotel Europa to think and write about the end of his relationship with the love of his life - and the book got great reviews/won prizes.
I liked how the story switched between the present at Grand Hotel Europa and the past in Venice with the girlfriend. I liked the little stories within the story, like the protagonists' search for a lost masterwork by Caravaggio (though it's quite telling that the most Dan Brown-esque part of the story was my favourite part).
Overall though, I didn't think it was a good book. It was overly long and not even as well written as reviewers would have us believe ; the endless mentions of Italian street names wasn't as much impressive as boring (like reading directions on Google Maps), and then there were the great literary comparisons like "her titties were like titties". It's a verbose book, but that doesn't mean it's good.
There was the main character's sexism throughout the book that served no purpose - even more frustrating because it was combined with too many words trying to convince the reader that the main character is not an awful bag of dicks, whilst acting like an awful bag of dicks. There's the continual sexualisation of every woman in the book with the sole exception of the very elderly owner of the hotel, always describing women's bodies by using diminutive forms of words, talking down to women in ways that are very much "haha I will say something in such a way that sounds like I agree with you, but in reality I believe myself to be superior and you're too dumb to notice."
Also, the actual theme of the book is the author's conviction that Europe (as a continent) is past its prime, decaying, and is being destroyed by mass tourism from China and the United States. It's an interesting topic, but literally every character the protagonist meets in the book completely agrees with him and has A LOT to say about this topic, from a mysterious hotel guest who once belonged to the European upper-classes to the taxi driver who brings him to a restaurant, they're all parrots who agree with the author's opinion. They're not so much actual, living people than walking Wikipedia pages who all happen to have extensive encyclopedian knowledge about studies, numbers and graphs that endorse the author's opinions.
Anyway, I didn't mean to write out an extensive review of the book and so I'll stop here - it's just good to have these thoughts written down somewhere so I'll remember them when I have to go discuss this book at the book club in two weeks. A lot of people seem to really love this book and think it's so amazing, so I'm kinda hoping some of the book club members love it as well so I can ask them: "BUT WHY THO?"
Reading
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood: Since I don't know yet what our next book for the book club will be, I picked up a book I was already reading before I started on Grand Hotel Europa. I enjoyed the TV series 'Alias Grace', but to be honest I'm not all that into the book (yet). It kind of bothers me that the main character (the doctor) keeps getting a hard-on for every single female character he encounters, including his patient ... that's gross.
Up next
The next book club pick, whichever book that may be.
Okay, time to get back to work ...