Rebecca Rolland's Blog - Posts Tagged "fiction"

At some level, I found this a richly braided, escapist read, taking us to Ancient Greece from multiple perspectives, and asking deep questions about the role of the imagination. But I also found the authorial tone oddly similar to All the Light We Cannot See, with a few tics that kept pushing me out of the story. For example, a tendency to skip over time: "Fourth grade. Fifth grade" and to press personal details of a life up immediately against historical ones ("the Korean War"). There is a tendency to dive into a child's perspective, and then to move out to reflect in ways that are entirely adult. In a way, everything is described with similar objectivity, which makes it hard to connect deeply with the characters. Thus, I recommend it--for its fabulous language and thinking--but with reservations.



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