Alright, I'm sure most of you who know me were wondering why my sidebar has been saying that I've been reading Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres for almost a month, if not more. I usually run through my books much faster. The truth is I hated the book, but didn't feel I could put it down. The entire blogosphere knew I was reading this book. I had to finish.
I bought this book because it was on the "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" table at B&N. And it had an intriguing cover and title. And people have been bugging me for years to read Louis de Bernieres' other book, which shall remain nameless, but has an almost cult-like following and a (what I'm sure is sub-par) movie staring Nicholas Cage (father of Kal-El). I figured if I read this one, I'd have a response when fanatics found out that I hadn't read their highly esteemed book.
Unfortunately for me, there's a reason why this one doesn't have the following of its older brother. It has approximately 600 plot lines, about 2 of which are interesting. By the end of the novel, I only cared about Leyla Hanim and Philothei. And then, even though the book is 551 pages long, the ending seems rushed and unfulfilling. And then there were 558 plot lines that I did not care about! The chapters are named after who narrates them, and I began to dread certain narrators. I truly enjoy history, and this book has a lot of history, but... it was so boring!
Another thing that kept me reading Birds Without Wings (besides that fabulous title. Even knowing how much I hate this book, I still LOVE the title and want to read a GOOD book with this title) is that approximately every 50 pages, Louis de Bernieres came up with some prose that absolutely blew me out of the water, it was so beautiful. It made me think that if he'd had a proper editor he could have come up with a better book. It almost made me sad.
5 comments:
So... having read Louis de Berniere's other book, I can tell you that is a beautiful, tragic, redemptive tale. I can also tell you that I only watched about 20 minutes of the movie version before deciding I would rather make out with the thug of the month than watch the rest of it. You might still consider giving it a chance. That being said, let me admit that I am also a sucker for a good title. Hemingway I think gets the award for best titles ever. Although I enjoyed "The Sun Also Rises," it wasn't as good as it's title.
pkI'm too lazy to Amazon that Berniere's guy, so I'm just going to run down a list of Nicolas Cage movies and assume he wrote the novels they were based on.
It Could Happen to You
The Family Man
8mm
Snake Eyes
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (this is the one I think is probably the real answer)
The Weather Man
Raising Arizona
Matchstick Men
Ignore the pk. Stupid cursor jumped form boxes.
What is this thing you refer to? This "reading" thing?
More than that - there were 598 plotlines you didn't care about!
I've been meaning to read anything by this guy as well - for most of the same reasons you have.
Post a Comment