Customer Reviews

And Mozart Was Taught

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A delightful story. I have enjoyed all of Ara 13's books, but this is my new favorite. Humorous as usual, with a medley of unique characters each influential in their own way. I will reference this book often in the future, when bouts of my own 'inertia' set in.

Ara 13. Fiction has me scrambling for words. This is not easy to do. I finished it several days ago and have been thinking about it since then. What shall I say? How will I say it? Honesty compels me to say that I don't know to whom I'd recommend this very creative and uniquely in-a-class-of-it's-own novel. I also can't compare it to any novels I've read. Meta-Fiction is new to me. I have seen Adaptation and Stranger than Fiction, which are in that same genre, and I did enjoy both movies and the tangled, twisted storylines.

The story centers around a missionary and his exploits within a rain forest area. He is narrating the story, with plenty of side trips and extra story bubbles, years after he has returned and he is an old man. Senile? Probably, as there is a conversation between his visitors and caregiver that sheds a different light on his stories.

Most readers of traditional, easy to follow fiction will likely not enjoy this story at all. It reads a little like an interactive diary written for a creative writing class, i.e..."today's assignment is to write a broken narrative about a pivotal series of events and how they shaped you. Make sure to use literary techniques that will keep your readers on their toes and guessing what direction you'll turn next."

The narrator and a few other characters have vocabularies and like to use them. My favorite sections of the book involved two natives who were wheeler-dealer con-men wannabes. The conversations between them and some of the simpler folks ended up being slapstick funny. I also enjoyed the creative twist in the story of the moral compass that guided the natives. Fiction is funny, yes, but it also has some dark elements as the consequences of beliefs play out. I did struggle with a few pages scattered here and there that told a parallel story but somehow didn't see how they intersected. Multiple POV's help move the story along.

I enjoyed Ara 13's first book, but this one is even better. His characters are well developed, with personalities so quirky and humorous that after finishing the book I wished I could somehow go visit them. The story itself is full of amusing irony, but also deals with the type of senseless tragedy and heartache that all too frequently occurs in life. This is one of those books I will read more than once.