Monday, October 24, 2005
Book Review: The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Writing Style-5.9
Originality-6.1
Plot-6.0
Literary Merit(whatever that means)-4.5
Overall-5.4
This book was okay. At ~1000 pages it’s probably more of a time commitment than it is really worth.
It’s a bestseller and it shows. It’s very soap operaish. It’s sort of a vulgar, poor man’s Dickens that revolves around the world of prostitution in the late 1800’s in England.
It starts out very well, delving into this seedy underworld in a very gritty manner. But then it actually turns into a hooker with a heart of gold story. I kept thinking, ‘Okay, surely he’s going to complicate things somehow along the way?’ But he never really does.
And the ending might be the most abrupt ending I’ve ever read. There are tons of loose ends left hanging. When you invest time in 1000 pages, you expect some satisfaction and you aint gettin none here. It’s pretty much like the author has this really fecund imagination and could have just kept going and going, but knew that he had to cut it off somewhere short of the four-digit page length mark.
I’m not gonna spend any more time on this one, since I’m almost 7 books behind on my reviews now. If you think you’d like a soap-operaish, bestseller, hooker with a heart of gold, period piece dressed up as something more intellectually redeeming then you could do worse than read this book. I was thoroughly entertained all the way through, but left feeling hollow.
Originality-6.1
Plot-6.0
Literary Merit(whatever that means)-4.5
Overall-5.4
This book was okay. At ~1000 pages it’s probably more of a time commitment than it is really worth.
It’s a bestseller and it shows. It’s very soap operaish. It’s sort of a vulgar, poor man’s Dickens that revolves around the world of prostitution in the late 1800’s in England.
It starts out very well, delving into this seedy underworld in a very gritty manner. But then it actually turns into a hooker with a heart of gold story. I kept thinking, ‘Okay, surely he’s going to complicate things somehow along the way?’ But he never really does.
And the ending might be the most abrupt ending I’ve ever read. There are tons of loose ends left hanging. When you invest time in 1000 pages, you expect some satisfaction and you aint gettin none here. It’s pretty much like the author has this really fecund imagination and could have just kept going and going, but knew that he had to cut it off somewhere short of the four-digit page length mark.
I’m not gonna spend any more time on this one, since I’m almost 7 books behind on my reviews now. If you think you’d like a soap-operaish, bestseller, hooker with a heart of gold, period piece dressed up as something more intellectually redeeming then you could do worse than read this book. I was thoroughly entertained all the way through, but left feeling hollow.
