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Il Cinese (2008)

by Henning Mankell(Favorite Author)

3.44 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8831797875 (ISBN13: 9788831797870)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Marsilio

review 1: This is my first encounter with Mankell’s books. I don’t read many fiction novels (so take this with a pinch of salt), and those that I do read are usually epics/deep-in-the-woods fantasy. I didn’t enjoy this book much.I’m guessing the book is meant to be a suspense-thriller-mystery-fictional history (?) type novel but it’s hard to tell because the story takes place over several decades, across several continents and focusing on the partial stories of several people who by-and-large have nothing to do with each other; each with its own theme and feel. The most exciting bits are at the beginning (murder mystery) and end (finding the killer) but the bits in the middle are tedious to read (a boring and overly detailed explanation of why all of this has happened). Wh... moreile I admire the amount of effort put into the story and the history of the plot- it seems to be well-placed in pseudo-contemporary politics- I feel like there was too much planning and blah blah blah about details not really relevant for building the atmosphere; overall rather shoddy execution. (On a side note, I’m quite put off by how many people have commented on how ‘informative’ the book was regarding world politics: NO! If you want to learn about politics, read a textbook not a fictional novel.)All the characters are pretty uninteresting and seem to be vectors for converting some more plot description into dialogue. Mankell adds a tickle of personal detail about each character and their personal dilemma but it’s not intriguing nor is it even necessary. Brigitta might as well have had no involvement in Chinese politics in her youth and the story would read no differently; She may as well have been happily married with only a dog to care for. I don’t think it was horrible but I had to convince myself to pick it up again after I’d put it down for 3 months. I think it could have been an awesome story had the characters been more real and the writing more creative and alluring.
review 2: Mankell blijft een goede verteller. Dit is geen Wallanderverhaal, maar het boeit, ook al overdrijft hij vaak in zijn beschrijvingen en had het verhaal minstens 150 blz. korter gekund.Zoals zo vaak, dit is een erg slechte vertaling. De vertaalster gebruikt een arm Engels. Wanneer je hoogstens bij vijf woorden op 550 blz. even moet nadenken, dan schort er iets aan de vertaling. Daarom lees ik vaak vertalingen in het Duits. less

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