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Maidenhair (2005)

by Mikhail Shishkin(Favorite Author)

4 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1934824364 (ISBN13: 9781934824368)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Open Letter Books

review 1: This is one of those books that starts off with a bang and then slowly fizzles. Initially, I would liken the reading experience to be very similar to reading Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" or "Midnight's Children", which requires an ability to give oneself over to the stream of consciousness of the novel in order to absorb the themes and to see patterns. In this case, by midway through the book I was there and did not enjoy the rest. The themes are powerful ones in this novel set in the Swiss office for interviewing people requesting refugee status. They include: the savagery of mankind, love, development of numbness to savagery after hearing and seeing too much of it, and how life fits with scripture. Quite an interesting collection, but again, the book fizzles for me. ... more Darn!
review 2: I really struggled to get into this book, the positive reviews driving me more than the actual prose. I was hoping at some point to really start to enjoy it, but that moment never arrived. The separate strands of narrative were confusing without purpose or reward, as was the fusing of myth with the contemporary (naming characters Tristan and Isolde, or example). If the point is, it's all story, the same stories over and over, in different contexts and at different times, I get it. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if it was half the length. less

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