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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Tale of Two People, May 24, 2008
I have always been a big fan of Louis de Bernieres, and I am happy to say this newest book doesn't disappoint. Note that this is a quick read - you can easily read it in one sitting.
Summary, no spoilers.
This story is told in short chapters, narrated by the two main characters - Chris, a lonely man who lives with a passionless wife he calls The "Great White Loaf", and by Roza, a young woman he meets on the street and propositions, under the mistaken belief that she was working as a prostitute. Well, she wasn't. At least not at that time.
This unlikely couple end up meeting and having regular talks at Roza's dilapidated home, where she tells him stories about her life. We wonder if Roza is an unreliable narrator, but we want to believe her, and so does Chris. Her stories charm Chris, so much so that he begins to fall for Roza, and he craves her company and fantasizes about making her his lover. He is falling in love with her, and she seems to be caring for him, too, despite her tales getting wilder and more sordid.
No spoilers - but we know early on that these characters do not end up together, and that this is the cause of quite a bit of regret. By the end of the book, we find out why, and what happened.
I enjoyed the book a great deal. It can be very funny at times, and yet there are also some horrendous things that happen, in particular to young Roza as a young girl. This story tells us something about lost opportunities, and about living life to the fullest.
Recommended.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Partisan's daughter, a so-so story, May 26, 2009
I have read all of Louis de Bernieres books, but I think he wrote this one because he was short of money. Compared to "Birds without Wings", e.g. this is not up to his usual standard.
A man, unhappy in his marriage, listens to the stories of a Serbian woman and becomes more and more enchanted with her. We don't know if these stories are real or if she makes them up in order to show, or satisfy a craving for an exciting past.
In any case, he believes her. I found it rather tedious and even the few shocking bits came across as "oh well, what else is new?"
Not one of my favorite Bernieres.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely writing but what is the point of this book?, January 16, 2010
This review is from: A Partisan's Daughter (Vintage International) (Paperback)
I'm not exactly sure what to make of this book - like other reviewers said, to me it mainly seemed meaningless! It was a very frustrating read, and an unrewarding one. Maybe I'm just missing the point, but I think that might be because, if there is one, the point is buried under a story that is much too convoluted and long.
The other thing that really bothered me was Roza's discontinuity. I know we're supposed to be very skeptical of her, but more than that I was skeptical the author's portrayal of her - it seemed to me that Roza, as a character, kept shifting, and not in a good way. Her first-person narrative sometimes differed from what she told Chris, and this made plenty of sense. But then, it seems that not only do we have to distrust everything she said to Chris, but also everything she says to us. I mean, was she a prostitute or wasn't she? She tells it to us both ways. In the beginning, the prostitution was a lie meant to shock Chris, in the ending she narrates (to us, not Chris) her life of sex for money in a totally convincing, emotional way - and I don't know what to make of that. Why should I care about a character that doesn't seem to actually exist? There isn't even enough of a "real" Roza on the page for me to buy "Roza the lier" - I don't buy her existence at all. Chris was interesting but his role was quite small, so I felt invested in neither of them, and I think that is probably the reason that this book was, for me, so very boring.
I think I only finished it because I got strung along on the quality of the writing. The writing was enough to get me really excited about this book... but never for longer than 15 minutes, and pretty soon it was just a drag to the last page while I was asking myself why didn't I just give it up. Maybe it was the lack of characterization, maybe that there wasn't really much of a story? In any case, I do not recommend this book.
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