Sunflower in Never too Late to Read Classics

Apr 02, 2011 Chrissie rated it did not like it

Shelves: hungary, disliked, kindle, dnf, fiction

I could not finis h this book. I read 29%.

First, let me point out that the samples available from Amazon should NOT be only the introduction to the book. The introduction is written by a writer different from the author. You cannot glimpse the author's style from this. I also checked the the very beginning of the book that can be read at the Amazon site. This did intrigue me. It was suspenseful, amusing and filled with similes that I enjoyed. I thought the similes were very perceptive. Try this I could not finis h this book. I read 29%.

First, let me point out that the samples available from Amazon should NOT be only the introduction to the book. The introduction is written by a writer different from the author. You cannot glimpse the author's style from this. I also checked the the very beginning of the book that can be read at the Amazon site. This did intrigue me. It was suspenseful, amusing and filled with similes that I enjoyed. I thought the similes were very perceptive. Try this one on page 45:

...at dawn he would have stopped in at St. Roch's Chapel where the poor nuns, like white seagulls by the ocean's dark shore, sat in the pews, row after row, saying prayers as adventitious as birdsong.

One simile at a time, that I like, but when whole paragraphs are nothing but similes about a character you do not even know, well then my interest drops like a stone. You even forget who is being described sometimes! Here, try this description of a croupier in a gambling hall on page 47:

A dyed mustache, meticulous shave, pomaded strands of hair pasted across his bald skull like dark twigs on winter trees: this was the croupier. He wore a green bunting jacket and tight pants, like landed gentry on a city outing. He let the nail grow long on his little finger, and wore an oversize signet ring bought at a pawn shop. He was on familiar terms with everyone present, for that was the style of the house. His bulging frog's eyes took in his guests from top to toe, the rock in his tiepin was the size of a pea, and he wore his watch chain short, in the manner of army officers. His platinum-capped false teeth smiled enigmatically behind blue lips. This man was never bothered by the thought that outdoors it might be springtime....He wore great big American shoes, equipped with ear-and toothpicks in a silver case, a gilt-backed mustache brush, a a silver cigar-cutter, a pocketknife with a handle fashioned from an antler, and matching morocco leather notebook, mirror, wallet and change purse; his back pocket had a Browning automatic, his lapel sported ........

I have only given you about half of the paragraph. This is all about an insignificant character in the tale!

Let me say this very clearly. The beginning of the book aroused my curiosity and intrigued me. Then as I progressed into the novel it went off onto tangents, became overly descriptitve and put me to sleep. I feel tricked. What I read in the beginning is not what the book delivers. I am giving up. What a disappointment. This is a "New York Review Books Classic"!

Oh, and not only did I dislike the excessiveness of the details, absolutely nothing has happened since the first chapter when Eveline left her home in Pest and moved out to her manor Bujdos-Hideaway on the upper reaches of the River Tisza. I have met three main characters: Eveline, Kaliman and Andor Alimos-Dreamer, and have been sufficiently informed about their ancestors with almost exactly the same names. Nice and confusing. A challenge, if you want that sort of a challenge. All Eveline has done is left Pest. All Andor has done is pretend he was dead and then sat up in his coffin. Kaliman, Eveline's former fianceé, tried to sneak into her apartment. That was the exciting part in chapter one, but he only stole a sprig of frozen rosemary from her garden. Yes, it is bizarre. That is what intrigued me, but the writing style makes it impossible for me to enjoy it. Maybe one should rad it as poetry, one paragraph at a time, while you read another book! ...more

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