| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Old fashioned romantic love comes to modern Glasgow,
By A Customer
This review is from: So I Am Glad (Paperback)
This book is one of the finest novels I've ever read. A wonderful premisewith characters I believed in and cared deeply about. With funny, insightful, courageous writing as well. So I am Glad is a somewhat gritty Magical Realist story set in modern day Glasgow. It is about an emotionally damaged woman named Jennifer whose life begins to change when a man with amnesia unexpectedly appears in her apartment one day. That in and of itself would make for a decent premise. The beauty of Kennedy's premise is that the man is Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac. Most readers will only know Savinien from the play about him or the movies based on the play. But he is indeed a real historical figure, a romantic whose life revolved around duelling and writing and love. One of the more interesting things about this book is how such a man, mysteriously brought back to life 300 years after his death, would deal with modern laws against violence and the apathy of modern people. Indeed, a sub-theme running throghout the book is a commentary about political apathy: Jennifer stops occasionally to rant about events from the news that she announces for a living which anger her but which she feels powerless to do anything about. The core of the book, however, is about the relationship between Jennifer and Savinien. Even though they fall in love with one another, their relationship is slow to develop (very slow in the beginning) and suffers horribly along the way. There is a kind of dreadful symmetry about the two characters which hinders their relationship. Both of them have personalities which help them cope with their fear of being hurt by other people. Jennifer because she was abused as a child. Savinien because his appearance led people to mock him. Jennifer isolates herself from others emotionally, refusing to feel love among other things, while Savinien needs other people to show their love or respect for him. This is, of course, a recipe for disaster. Jenifer inflicts pain during sex with someone (not Savinien) in order to assert her invulnarability to and control over those people she allows closest to her. Savinien used to duel to assert his invularability to and control over those who would belittle himthese actions also gets in the way of their relationship to some extent. Watching Jennifer and Savinien try to love one another when their own neuroses and fears drive them apart is an intense, at times agonizing experience. But ultimately it is an important and rewarding one. Which is probablly something close to the author's intent, to show us why loving others is so difficult and why it's so important to suceed.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not your usual romantic fantasy.,
By
This review is from: So I Am Glad (Hardcover)
It would be far too easy to merely state that this book is about a lonely woman, who meets a man, who claims to be the reincarnation of Cyrano de Bergerac. This is an emotionally complex story with some of the most beautiful language put to paper that I've read in years. There are paragraphs I want to cut out and put on the wall as keepsakes. This is certainly not your everyday romantic fantasy. So I Am Glad is just as much about pain as it is about love.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
some gems within,
This review is from: So I Am Glad (Hardcover)
Though there are many beautiful passages and the love story is intriguing, overall I found the book a bit tedious. It's hard to relate to any of the characters since none is particularly likeable, and the plot meanders somewhat. Perhaps if the book were shorter, it would have packed more punch. Still, the author does many things right -- the Cyrano parallel was well conceived and well outlined. It's hard to describe the sensation of reading this book -- the scenes seeemed so detached at times as to be surreal and I found myself getting disoriented within the novel. I didn't enjoy the experience that much, but I would not want to dismiss the author who has many good ideas and interesting premises. A bit odd overall, but interesting.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
