Literature This Isn't
597893
Literature this isn't. (I put it down twice as "unable to finish") No discernable plot. Rather paste board characters. No real action. Part travelogue (Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania in the 1930s-70), part mystery (do vampires still live?), part romance it's simply too long, too convoluted (multiple narrators) and, frankly, somewhat immature. I thought it needed several applications of an editor's red pencil and better judgment and was surprised Little Brown published it;  but I guess they knew what they were doing because it has been a big hit. As this is written I note Ms Kostova  has a new novel just out and I wish her well. Just hope she's learned to write with greater brevity and better story telling skill.
2162357
This isn't an academic, or scientific work. It's a collection of family stories and genealogy research by the author. You will not be able to read this book in the evening as it pages are narcolepsy inducing. It would probably serve better to classify this book as a fiction novel, loosely based on history. Might as well get a tarot card reading or a star chart if you really seek a deeper understanding, at least either would be infinitely more entertaining.
2164997
You like amazing bizarro literature? Read it. You like innovative literary fiction? Read it. You like lame genre fiction? Not for you.
2411787
Fugitive Pieces, indeed.  Not even creditable poetry.  Certainly not estimable fiction.  Pieces? yes.  Fugitive? Without a doubt.
The title may be the only honesty of this annoyance that pretends to be a book -- a  novel or a long poem.  I was asked by a friend to read it.  Otherwise, I  would never have finished it. Early on, I could sense its origins in poetic  inspiration -- but of questionable quality.
As I read I began to  recognize yet another example of contemporary cultural product, the  "packaged book" -- a stitched-together pastiche of poetic patches  and prose hodgepodgeries pretending to Holocaust importance -- exploiting  and thereby trivializing that tragedy.
But the title should have  warned us.  These are "fugitive pieces." Why then blind ourselves  with the perception that this book is more than that, as though it contains  some deeper unity of  meaning, some intriguing mystery? I cannot shake the  feeling that this is yet another collection of discrete poetic pieces made  to appear like a singular prose work. It may look like one but it doesn't  read like one.  It simply doesn't work.
The seams still show.  As for the  poetry, there are flashes of lyrical beauty.  But for the most part the  poetic images are labored.  Metaphors alone do not true poetry make.
And  "Fugitive Pieces," especially up front, drips  in tiresome (and  tired) metaphors.  In fact, "Fugitive Pieces" is, itself, a  metaphor for a book, not the real thing.
1744855
THIS IS NOT MY TYPE OF BOOKS.  IT DOES NOT MEAN OTHERS WOULD NOT LIKE IT.
636105
came across it while trotting through a local bookstore.  i was looking for a novel, or an art book to be honest.  i have not the smallest interest in children books.
but this is not a book for children, just like the nightmare before christmas is not a movie for children.  they both are pieces of art for people who are funny-in-the-head-ish.
1906246
Technically very good.  Nor meant for pleasure reading.
4626500
Not overwhelmingly dense, but also not a quick read.
4074430
I bought the three books in this series because of a recommendation.

I'm not saying the books were poorly written.  I simply do not like the style of writing, character development, etc.  It was hard to identify with any part of the stories.

This isn't typical sci-fi or fantasy writing.

Some people consider these books classics.  I don't.
4161178
this is not fiction or mythology . for a gifted writer he could have come up with different names and made the reading tolerable.  In stead, he took characters of Mythology distorted the time line in mythology and destroyed characters of the ancient Mythology.  example  Shiva smokes grass, Sati is married twice, ganesh was abandoned, and Parasuram was a bandit. Kali is Evil?
I can understand writers taking liberties but this is beyond that.
I didn't like the story but I like the story telling.
954179
If you are looking for a light diverting read, this is it. If you are looking for historical fact about the lives of the Boleyns, this is most assuredly NOT it.

It's not history, nor is it great literature, but I don't really think it's meant to be either. I recommend it only if you understand what you're getting yourself into; otherwise, you will be bitterly disappointed.
2726850
Amazon! For heaven sake, this is not a literary anthology!
2495288
First, this is NOT what I would classify as "historical fiction." It is merely a story set in the past, and that fact, coupled with having one of the characters read headlines from a 1918 newspaper just isn't enough to qualify for this category. Second, the author reportedly holds a doctorate in English. One would expect her to understand, for instance, that the words hay (fodder)and straw (bedding) are not interchangeable ("Buster came to a stop in front of a bale of hay. As the horse munched on the straw..."); or to realize that "nuzzle" is not a noun in the English language, and it is definitely not part of a horse's anatomy (i.e., "He [Buster] lifted his nuzzle in greeting." or "He dropped the reins as Buster lowered his nuzzle to the water."). And you'd expect the author would be able to avoid sentences such as "Only a handful of passengers scattered across the platform..." (Why? did someone toss a hand grenade?)

You'd think that the author would know the difference between "clinched" and "clenched" (i.e., "She clinched her fists in frustration..."); or between wiggled and wriggled (i.e., "She wiggled away from his grasp...").

You'd think, as a Georgian, she'd find a better way to express the thought that Savannah is a coastal city ("Bea Dot found the water soothing, so different from Savannah's Atlantic Ocean..."). Savannah is located on the Savannah River, twenty miles upriver from the ocean, but this sentence makes it seem geographically more like Myrtle Beach.

For someone who claims to have labored three years over this manuscript, you'd expect her to have found such mistakes as using "despite me" instead of "to spite me."  Also, on page 85, she mentions "stink bugs." Unless there was another species of insect also known as the stink bug back in 1918 (and there might have been, who knows), what we call stink bugs today are native to Korea and didn't show up in the US until 1998.

Worst of all for me was that I didn't like any of the characters! The two main women characters came across as spoiled, petty, mood-shifting whiners, while the male lead was basically a cad, in my opinion, for his seduction of a married (and very vulnerable) woman still in her teens.

As to the plot, nothing actually "matters" in this novel. It is simply a narrative in story form of what happens to several people over the course of a few months in 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic in Georgia. Everyone ends up in a different place and in a different condition from where they started, but I didn't really get the feeling that there'd been any character growth for any of them, merely good luck, bad luck, or wish fulfillment, as with the very predictable romantic happy ending for the young lovers. But by the time I got to the end, my only remaining feeling was "So What?"

Finally, what this book lacked most of all, besides compelling characters and a strong plot, was a knowledgeable editor who might have caught some of the more glaring mistakes and at least made the book readable. All the misused words and muddled facts (and I've included only a partial list above) have the effect of knocking the reader out of the story, and then wondering if it's worth it to get back into it.
3059024
Not what I would call an enjoyable or even an enlightening work of literature.  Not recommended Not recommended Not recommended
3539023
Yes, there are some lovely and thought-provoking passages in this book.  Yes, it's wonderful to read about discussants from many societies grappling with questions of ethics and meaning.  But, this text is not philosophy. It's not Socratic. In many places it's not even thoughtful. In fact, in many places it's flat-out wrong.

The Greeks did not think that "beauty" was equivalent to "order." They did not think that virtue was intrinsically linked with harmony. In this the author is simply wrong. In fact, the distinctions between these concepts are themselves instructive.

I was disappointed in this text. Philosophic questioning should search out the truth carefully and analytically. By contrast, pouring on fuzzy words, often in a foreign language, in response to the great questions will not bring clarity, or if so only by accident.

I suspect that Socrates would have been disappointed in these disputations, and likely would have skewered this author for his carelessness.
2968865
This is a review of the physical copy, not the story.  This is not the book.  It's some typed up version in large paper bound volume.
3607174
This is not great literature, but it is amusing. Some people enjoy reading about the suffering of others; I do not. I read to relax, and this book is a comedy. It is most refreshing, even though it is no longer new.