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October 30, 2007
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David
gave
 
to:
The Afghan (Hardcover)
by Frederick Forsyth
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: Any writers circle wanting an illustration of how not to write a thriller
read in August, 2007
David said:
"You don't read Forsyth for the dialogue or the narrative style - you read him for twisty, page-turning plot and for know-how. This one, I have to admit, kept me turning the pages, but I found precious little new in the know-how.
Forysth's dialogu...more
You don't read Forsyth for the dialogue or the narrative style - you read him for twisty, page-turning plot and for know-how. This one, I have to admit, kept me turning the pages, but I found precious little new in the know-how.
Forysth's dialogue is wooden at best. In this one, he handles dialogue by mostly omitting it altogether. When he does break his long, grey, heavy paragraphs for a line of dialogue, it's not wooden any more - it's like lead.
Much the same goes for the narrative style. This is an adventure story that makes a thrilling sequence read like the legal column in a heavyweight broadsheet newspaper.
It looks like one he was reluctantly arm-twisted by his publisher into writing - a book that he didn't want to bother with but which would make a bob or two for the publisher. Steal it if you must, but for pity's sake don't spend money on it....less
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David
gave
to:
The Mission Song (Paperback)
by John le Carré
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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recommended for: Seasoned Le Carré fans only
read in October, 2007
David said:
"At one level, this is vintage Le Carré. At another, it falls flat on its face. Le Carré is a great writer, getting on a bit now, and he attempts to do a first-person narrative inside the skin of a mixed-race (Caucasian/African) 28-year-old man. It ...more
At one level, this is vintage Le Carré. At another, it falls flat on its face. Le Carré is a great writer, getting on a bit now, and he attempts to do a first-person narrative inside the skin of a mixed-race (Caucasian/African) 28-year-old man. It doesn't work - there are far too many references to things the narrator cannot have been familiar with. My other gripe about this one is that, unusually compared with Le Carré at his peak (anywhere from Tinker, Tailor to The Night Manager), he fails to give individual voice to the different characters. All his characters in this one speak the same way.
I have never had personal dealings with Le Carré and therefore do not know what he's like with his editors. But this one simply should have been edited, even at the risk of arousing the great man's ire.
No one is such a good writer that they never need editing. The omission here ruins what otherwise is a terrific book. ...less
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August 31, 2007
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David
added:
Stolen Thunder (mass market paperback)
by David Axton
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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