brokenspiners

I Really Wanted to Love This

Revisado: 03-22-24

I'm convinced Cassandra Khaw is not for me. I really wanted to love this. It had everything I wanted, but I just couldn't get into it. I DNF'd it at just under 50%.

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Could’ve Wasted 25 Minutes Scrolling the Internet

Revisado: 02-18-23

I didn’t go into this thinking it would be 5 stars or even 4, but whew boy I did not expect it to be a 2 star and I’m being generous at that. At the end I was left with a what the heck did I just read. I wasn’t a particular fan of the narrator. The pausing during the poetry readings was a bit excessive and took me even further out of the story. And, if I’m being honest I didn’t care what happened to Leina after she got to the garden; especially when she asked the guide which parent does he hate. It’s seems to me that Leina has some unresolved mommy issues and mommy trauma. Maybe this story had good bones, but it was definitely too short to make any sense out of why Leina went to the garden.

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Not Bad, but Not Great

Revisado: 07-06-17

If you could sum up Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in three words, what would they be?

It took me a lot longer to read this book than expected and because of it, I got the audiobook; which by the way stopped and would no longer with only about an hour left in the recording. Anyway, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was underwhelming. For the most part, the story is well told, but I found myself asking questions (i.e. what happened to Luo's mother? why didn't Luo or the narrator's parents pay for the early release of their sons?). I found myself, at times, wanting to read Balzac rather than this book. I was definitely angry that the Mao regime band all "cultural" books in an effort to get people conform and not have individual thoughts and thus be considered a threat to someone else's belief system. I also feel like the ending was just thrown together and it seemed like there should have been something else there. I wonder what a sequel would look like. Tieing up loose ends. Whatever happened to the Seamstress, Luo, the narrator, Four-Eyes.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I found the concept of re-education interesting

What does B.D. Wong bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I like B.D. Wong as an actor, but for some reason he didn't bring to much to this story. The narration fell flat or maybe is it was the overall story.

If you could take any character from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I've read several reviews in which reviewers ended up not liking the Seamstress, but I liked the fact that she discovered there was something more to life than Phoenix Mountain. Having said that I would like to have dinner with her to find out if "city" life met her expectations.

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Definitely Not Impressed w/ the Audiobook

Revisado: 04-24-17

Would you try another book from William Faulkner and/or Kevin Pariseau?

I would read another book of William Faulkner, but I probably won't listen to another book read by Kevin Pariseau

Would you be willing to try another book from William Faulkner? Why or why not?

Yes. I have read a couple of books by Faulkner and am open to reading more books by him.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Although the narrator spoke clearly, I found his reading excruciating slow and boring and not helpful to the understanding of the novel. There were long pauses in places where pauses should not be. It was quite distracting. So much so that I stopped the recording and read the book.

Do you think A Fable needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. Even though I'm not a fan of Faulkner, I think he completed the story even if it was verbose

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