 | | |
| People of the Book: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Geraldine Brooks
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $8.46
You Save: $17.49 (67%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $8.46
Avg. Customer Rating:  (136 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1443
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 067001821X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780670018215
ASIN: 067001821X
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Intriguing Idea, Stuffy Tone November 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Personal narrative and the way it affects and changes an object is a major theme of Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book. Brooks was inspired to write the novel based on actual events surrounding the discovery and recovery of the Sarajevo Haggadah. In Brooks' fictionalized account, a manuscript conservator named Hanna Heath is commissioned to examine the ancient text before its placement in a museum's collection. In analyzing the haggadah, she finds a number of odd an out-of-place items: a white hair, an unidentified stain, a gossamer wing, and more. Even as Hannah is all research and science in discovering the hidden history of this book, personal narratives arise that give life and breadth to the text itself.
I really enjoyed learning more about the people whose hands this haggadah had passed through. But when the novel would refocus on the present, and on Hanna, I just kept losing interest. I did not particularly like her as a character, and I didn't always believe in the authenticity of her actions or motives. I found myself eager for her to discover a new twist or turn in the pages of the haggadah, just so we could at least radiate out into a new adventure.
I also found myself frequently annoyed by the professorial tone Brooks sometimes employed. I had to resist the urge to keep Google at my fingertips - there was just SO much world history referenced throughout the book, along with many (MANY) foreign words and phrases. I know I risk sounding like a willing idiot by saying this, but I would have appreciated more of a "layman's" approach to this story.
Even so, I really did enjoy People of the Book. I thought the premise behind it was fascinating, and - as I said - I became easily engrossed in the different intimate stories coursing through the haggadah's pages. I read this as part of a book club, and we all felt there were good, weighty themes to discuss and many personal opinions to be shared about this unique novel.
I love a book that teaches you something October 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed reading this book. I'd read Year of Wonders before and thought it a great tale. This also wrapped a story through history and the tell-tale scraps we leave behind. Learned a LOT about book preservation and all those good things. I read this while up in the mountains in Georgia, and will leave it up here for my sister in law to pick up if she's interested whenshe comes to visit. And then, it may travel some more....just like the book in the story, but under less trying circumstances.
 Uninspired October 21, 2008
This book sounded great to me. I like all the elements in promised--mystery, clash of cultures, sweep of time etc. yet the book does not work at all. The characters are flat and the situations predictable and predictably resolved. There was nothing special in this book.
 A brillant and memorable book October 14, 2008
I'm not one to rave much about books on ancient history, but Geraldine Brooks' "People of the Book" is a vastly impressive work like the threads in a finely woven tapestry. One not only learns much about early Jewish history, as recorded over the centuries in a haggadah, a type of living religious text, but Brooks' deftness transitions from the present day book restorer and her life to that of the ancients who wrote the text. The ending is, in itself, stunning, not only for its realism but for the way Brooks brings all the threads together in one final, mighty stitch.
Not as fast paced as that other historical fiction (The DaVinci Code), but this is not a thriller. It's a thinker and a wonderful one at that.
a most worthwile book to read September 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
a fine book in all areas. would apeal to both men and women. a most compelling story.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |