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Erin's Reviews > A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America
A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America
by Tom Zoellner
by Tom Zoellner
I received this as a First Reads.
In the beginning of the book Zoellner states, "This book is an attempt to make sense of a fundamentally baffling event." and "this is not a work of objective journalism". One of these sentences is true. One is definitely not.
It started off well, recounting the happenings of January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. It was interesting reading the details of the day, including who was there, why and where. But a few pages in it started losing it's appeal to me. I appreciate the fact that the author wanted to really detail everything but he went into incredible detail about things that we didn't really need to know. Zoellner could have left out some of the minute details and saved the reader a lot of useless descriptions.
The book jumps from one subject to another in an instant. First you are reading about that tragic day, next you are reading about the Kennedy assassination, then pieces of history of Arizona. The author even threw in stories about his childhood, which did eventually bring us to his meeting with Gabrielle Giffords, but not without boring us first.
I feel this book is more of an transcript of a rambling, grief stricken man, trying to make sense of a personal tragedy, then a work of literature. Though I did learn quite a few things about the state of Arizona I would never have known if I hadn't read this book. That is the only reason for the 2 stars.
So, in case you were wondering the first statement was false. This didn't make sense of the event at all. I don't think you can blame an economy or history for one persons decision to take lives.
Maybe I'm just not the audience the author intended this book for. Other may very well enjoy this book. I did not.
www.theultimatebooknook.blogspot.com
In the beginning of the book Zoellner states, "This book is an attempt to make sense of a fundamentally baffling event." and "this is not a work of objective journalism". One of these sentences is true. One is definitely not.
It started off well, recounting the happenings of January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. It was interesting reading the details of the day, including who was there, why and where. But a few pages in it started losing it's appeal to me. I appreciate the fact that the author wanted to really detail everything but he went into incredible detail about things that we didn't really need to know. Zoellner could have left out some of the minute details and saved the reader a lot of useless descriptions.
The book jumps from one subject to another in an instant. First you are reading about that tragic day, next you are reading about the Kennedy assassination, then pieces of history of Arizona. The author even threw in stories about his childhood, which did eventually bring us to his meeting with Gabrielle Giffords, but not without boring us first.
I feel this book is more of an transcript of a rambling, grief stricken man, trying to make sense of a personal tragedy, then a work of literature. Though I did learn quite a few things about the state of Arizona I would never have known if I hadn't read this book. That is the only reason for the 2 stars.
So, in case you were wondering the first statement was false. This didn't make sense of the event at all. I don't think you can blame an economy or history for one persons decision to take lives.
Maybe I'm just not the audience the author intended this book for. Other may very well enjoy this book. I did not.
www.theultimatebooknook.blogspot.com
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Reading Progress
| 11/28/2011 | page 1 |
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0.0% | "just got it in the mail. One of the ones I won" |
