The Book of Air and Shadows in Arrangement and Description: Archivists At Large

Aug 17, 2011 Barbara rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-but-not-owned

I'm kind of split on this book; with three different storylines, that's not a difficult place to be.

Crosetti is by far the most enjoyable, but by the end it was annoying how he constantly described film cliches in the thriller genre, only to have the events play out exactly as he said. He explains his idea that life imitates film, not the other way around, and I suppose this is the author's way of illustrating that point, but--come ON. I don't read these kinds of books because I can guess the e I'm kind of split on this book; with three different storylines, that's not a difficult place to be.

Crosetti is by far the most enjoyable, but by the end it was annoying how he constantly described film cliches in the thriller genre, only to have the events play out exactly as he said. He explains his idea that life imitates film, not the other way around, and I suppose this is the author's way of illustrating that point, but--come ON. I don't read these kinds of books because I can guess the ending and what side all the players are on. Still, despite his formulaic movie obsession, the interactions of Crosetti, his family, Carolyn, and Klim are quite entertaining. Crosetti's mother is probably my favorite character in the entire 460+ pages.

Richard Bracegirdle's chapters are difficult, because his narration is told completely in 17th century letters written in the Jacobean style of inconsistent spelling variations. It turned what could have been the most interesting story into sentences that were almost painful to slog through. I get historical realism, but please don't make it hard on your readers. (They got faster as the book went on; by the last letter, I was almost used to it.)

Jake--I hated him. Just absolutely despised him. A former weighterlifter, now intellectual property lawyer with a sex addiction, a Nazi mother, a Jewish gangster father, a slutty sister, a thug-turned-priest brother, a painfully good estranged wife, a completely abnormal son and a regular teen daughter, he's got WAY too much going on in his life--and I didn't care about any of it. His sexual exploits made too many appearances--sorry, I'm just not interested in the various noises women make--and his long paragraphs fighting with his guilt were irritating. His story was told in the first person, leading me to think that *this* is the one the audience is supposed to identify with the most, to listen to the most, to care about the most. *This* guy is more the main character of the book than anyone else.

Thbbbbbbbbbbt.

Why did I pick this book up? Because it was a book about a lost Shakespeare manuscript and ciphered letters hiding its location. I like tales with a literary/historical bent, and I love a good mystery. This had little history, and less mystery. What should have been surprises were too long coming, or just fulfilling onscreen cliches. For the sake of Crosetti and his mother, I would love to give this book 2.5 stars. However, GoodReads won't let me have a half star, so I'm rounding down--I can't convince myself to round up. ...more

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Aug 19, 2009 Leah Weisse rated it liked it

I liked the descriptions of bookmaking, the Shakespearean life and the de-coding problems. I disliked the lawyer character which is too bad because he is one of the main narrators. It really picked up when the book brings the two main narrators together.

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