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Las Crónicas De La Señorita Hempel (2011)

by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8492663472 (ISBN13: 9788492663477)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Libros del Asteroide

review 1: This is a book about the life of an average person, Ms. Hempel, is just an ordinary girl, with an uneventful boring life. She's not a really smart person, she doesn't witness a mysterious crime, she's not involved in an exquisite love story, nothing interesting just an average person.But why? why go through the trouble of coming up with such a character and write a book about her? I don't know, and I couldn't find the answer, I struggled through the endless details of Ms. Hempel's life, scattered all over this book, such a great imagination the author has, and a very good writing style, but really why? why waste such a talent to write such an aimless book? maybe I just don't understand.I have to admit, there is something beautiful about the ordinary, and it probably requir... moreed a great deal of creativity to write as well, but it is, by definition and inescapably, boring, there's just nothing you can do about it.
review 2: I adored the first chapter of this book, and sat straight up, so excited. Then it progressively went downhill. I ended up skimming, then skipping, then closed the book.Ms. Bynum is talented, and has a gift for humor and perception, but she needs a stern editor to help her weave her threads and maintain her focus. She gives this ADD to her protagonist in this book, and I thought, "Yeah. it's a problem. You'll have to rework a LOT." But she didn't do the reworking, and she lost me.Clearly autobiographical. Lovely mix of omniscient narrator and Ms. Hempel's POV. Admirably well-done. Wonderful lines and detail and insights, but then a lot of what I call "JUST WRITING" that should have been trimmed. My mind's eye didn't know where to go or what to hang on to.I'd recommend the first chapter to anyone. If they finished the book, I'd ask "What happened?" and they'd say "She went back to school." (Yes. To get an MFA.) Ms. Bynum combined several short stories, trying to make a novel. It's not a novel, it's a book. I guess the title sort of tries to tell us that. But it should be marketed as a collection of short stories. Maybe then I'd have hung in there. Maybe. less

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