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A review by peripetia
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
slow-paced
3.0
It's not that I have a lot of trust in literary prizes but there are still certain expectations for them. One would, for example, expect them to be a little stronger plot-wise.
In my (subjective) opinion, this is not a good book. It's also not bad, exactly, but how it ended up on the Booker prize list confounds me.
Before I go into the review of the content, I have to add a disclaimer: I listened to this as an audiobook, probably the worst audiobook I have ever listened to, and unfortunately this affects my reading experience. (more about this later)
The book started suddenly and fast, which I liked. However, it too long for the plot to start. I had to come and look whether this was actually a mystery novel or if I just misremembered because there was no mystery anywhere, until after 3/4 or so.
The weak plot was greatly aided by everything conveniently working out. The main guy gets his ear cut off, and what do you know - he stumbles into a doctor's office.
He puts his ear in a box in another room, where two soldiers are staying. The ear catches their plans. The ear did not need to have magical powers, and the powers were not consistent. It seemed to me that it only heard things when the story needed a quick fix for a plothole. In general, Samson just wanders from situation to situation, contributing very little.
The historical setting was great and well done, but not enough.
And then the audiobook. For some unfathomable reason the narrator read all of the dialogue in a terrible fake supposedly Ukrainian accent. I despised it. There was no reason to change the accent of the characters in a novel otherwise read in fluent English. It did not contribute to creating immersion, quite the opposite.
As the narrator was probably too focused on the goddamn accents, he failed in putting any emotion to the dialogue. This also made me dislike the book, but I made an attempt to repeat some of the dialogue in my head to test how I would read it, and yes, the narration was just bad. Not that my interpretation is better, but at least there is one.
Sure, this is the danger of audiobooks, but they are rarely this bad.
In conclusion, this book was boring and had a very weak plot. Listening to the audiobook was like getting slapped in the face with a wet sock, repeatedly.
In my (subjective) opinion, this is not a good book. It's also not bad, exactly, but how it ended up on the Booker prize list confounds me.
Before I go into the review of the content, I have to add a disclaimer: I listened to this as an audiobook, probably the worst audiobook I have ever listened to, and unfortunately this affects my reading experience. (more about this later)
The book started suddenly and fast, which I liked. However, it too long for the plot to start. I had to come and look whether this was actually a mystery novel or if I just misremembered because there was no mystery anywhere, until after 3/4 or so.
The weak plot was greatly aided by everything conveniently working out. The main guy gets his ear cut off, and what do you know - he stumbles into a doctor's office.
He puts his ear in a box in another room, where two soldiers are staying. The ear catches their plans. The ear did not need to have magical powers, and the powers were not consistent. It seemed to me that it only heard things when the story needed a quick fix for a plothole. In general, Samson just wanders from situation to situation, contributing very little.
The historical setting was great and well done, but not enough.
And then the audiobook. For some unfathomable reason the narrator read all of the dialogue in a terrible fake supposedly Ukrainian accent. I despised it. There was no reason to change the accent of the characters in a novel otherwise read in fluent English. It did not contribute to creating immersion, quite the opposite.
As the narrator was probably too focused on the goddamn accents, he failed in putting any emotion to the dialogue. This also made me dislike the book, but I made an attempt to repeat some of the dialogue in my head to test how I would read it, and yes, the narration was just bad. Not that my interpretation is better, but at least there is one.
Sure, this is the danger of audiobooks, but they are rarely this bad.
In conclusion, this book was boring and had a very weak plot. Listening to the audiobook was like getting slapped in the face with a wet sock, repeatedly.