Goodreads | Sarah's review

Sarah's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33896.Thirteen_Moons?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Thirteen Moons" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1168469176m/33896.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33896.Thirteen_Moons?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Thirteen Moons</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7130.Charles_Frazier">Charles Frazier</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12568705?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 2 of 5 stars<br/>Frazier is an excellent writer, but in this one, he let the praise for Cold Mountain go to his head and spent more time showing off then he did telling a good story.  He did some interesting things - writing about lost cultures and their oral histories by writing down the histories in a way that failed to capture the magic of story telling, driving home exactly what was being lost.  As a reader, I could see what he was doing and appreciate the skill with which he was doing it.  But it was so deliberate and heavy handed that it broke up the flow of the story and made for a stilted read.  Also, the protagonist was pretty impressed with himself which meant that as he was telling "his story" came across as boastful, which meant that he was relatively inaccessible and not, I think Fraizer's intention.  Finally, I am not a prude, but I thought that in his attempt at realism, there were too many body jokes and a little too much discussion of bodily functions.  
<br/>
<br/>I was actually pretty bummed when I finished this book.  It was so dense that it really took dedication to finish.  And then when I did, I felt that I wasted my time.  I have such little free time and this book, though well written, really was not worth the effort.  
<br/>
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/590650?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Sarah's review
rating:

Frazier is an excellent writer, but in this one, he let the praise for Cold Mountain go to his head and spent more time showing off then he did telling a good story. He did some interesting things - writing about lost cultures and their oral histories by writing down the histories in a way that failed to capture the magic of story telling, driving home exactly what was being lost. As a reader, I could see what he was doing and appreciate the skill with which he was doing it. But it was so deliberate and heavy handed that it broke up the flow of the story and made for a stilted read. Also, the protagonist was pretty impressed with himself which meant that as he was telling "his story" came across as boastful, which meant that he was relatively inaccessible and not, I think Fraizer's intention. Finally, I am not a prude, but I thought that in his attempt at realism, there were too many body jokes and a little too much discussion of bodily functions.

I was actually pre...more

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Sarah's books »