I'm the last among my friends to read this novel. Everyone's been raving about it for months, so I pushed other books aside and was anxious to read this one. It's a lovely story about a kind, generous man who arrives in the southern town of Golden. His background is a mystery but he soon befriends the locals and his kindness is contagious. It isn't until the end that we know who he was and why he chose to live in Golden for a year.
You know how those first few bites of a sugary cereal can taste really good but after three or four bites your teeth hurt? Terrible analogy, I know, but that's the way I felt reading about Theo. He's this perfectly wonderful man... but after one act of kindness after another, I started to get a little bored. And frustrated with the big "secret" that we'd find out at the end.
Everyone says that because of all the terrible things going on right now, we all need a little kindness and love. Agree. I'm just not sure I found it here. I guess when it comes to elderly protagonists, I prefer Ove and the woman from The Correspondent. They were more interesting characters.
Still think you should read it so we can agree/disagree. - June
1 comment:
Of course, I typically agree with this blogger and was so relived to read that she agreed with my assessment! ;-) I was skimming happily through the first third when it finally hit me that this "feel good" book was too smatzy for me.. subject of each painting had too many impossibilities, conclusions to otherwise interesting stories. Agree--ok to read (easy flow) since reviews seem to vary wildly.
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