Featured Company:

People of the Book: A Novel

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $8.24
You Save: $ 6.76 ( 45% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

The “complex and moving”(The New Yorker) novel by Pulitzer Prize–winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war

Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called “a tour de force”by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century S pain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780143115007
ISBN: 0143115006
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2008-12-30
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle)
• March
• Year of Wonders
• Loving Frank: A Novel
• The Book Thief


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun history, clunky writing
Comment: The good:
- A great act of imagination on a worthy subject. If you enjoy history, the travels of the Sarajevo Haggadah, some parts likely, some parts not, are fascinating and inspired.
- The travels are little short stories, so even if one isn't gripping you, the next one might!
- The story of the African slave is vibrant, surprising and could have been its own novel.

The not-so-good:
- The writing can be clunky and as uninspired as the story is inspiring.
- You will see some plot turns coming from miles away.
- The narrator's story is the weakest in the book. That does not make it uninteresting; it just pales in comparison to the other elements.

In the end, "The People of the Book" is a very readable, enjoyable book - but perhaps not worthy of all its accolades.


Customer Rating:
Summary: People of the Book
Comment: A good, interesting mix of history and fiction, in a very enjoyable style. Terrible historical events to remember, and a fascinating history of book-making combine with Brooks' well-developed characters from the Spanish Inquisition through present time to enliven the tale. The ending was a bit too 'Hollywood' easy. But PEOPLE OF THE BOOK is a worthwhile read.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise and history, weak in other areas - 2.7
Comment: "People of the Book" is a tricky book to classify. On the one hand, it has an interesting premise, fascinating history and straight-forward writing. On the other hand, the characterization throughout is weak, the writing often feels awkward, and the story feels a bit disorganized. It's not much of a historical fiction novel, what with the prevalent modern-day plotline and style, but it also sits strangely in the standard fiction pile when the heavy religious themes and historical aspects are taken into account.

Brooks' writing was the first point I noticed. It isn't an overindulgent style but even in its flat frankness it feels slightly off. "People of the Book" is structured in such a way that every chapter alternates between short story and the modern-day narrative. Brooks doesn't quite accommodate for the shift in year or story meaning that though the flow is consistent throughout, it lacks the punch most purely historical fiction books have. At the same time, it doesn't feel fresh and modern, such that it is ultimately a strange, unsatisfying read.

It's Brooks' characterizations, however, that serve as "People of the Book"'s downfall. The modern-day narrative is a slow moving and fairly dull, relying quite a bit on rather trite plot devices, such as narrator Hanna's relationship with her mother, a colleague she sleeps with within the first chapter, and even with other side characters. Despite having the largest chunk of the book, Hanna's story never truly develops and nor does her character. She comes as a lightly sketched character and leaves the book as such as well, with hardly any more meat to her than what was originally given. The characters in the shorts stories are also sketched like this, perhaps more understandably as they have fewer pages in which to develop. But the characters remain fairly consistent in tone all through the book, with little to distinguish one from the other.

There are a number of prevalent themes in "People of the Book". Centering mostly around Jewish life in a number of different time periods and places in history, it seems to seek to highlight the times when Jews were killed, banished or simply discriminated against. This theme is, perhaps, the most interesting and historically relevant. Other themes, less relevant though, involve the perceived spirituality of Judaism. This is a much more frustrating theme, as it isn't particularly accurate to Judaism at the times mentioned and seems to reflect modern society a lot more than it does history. The constant theme of liberation or spirituality through sex, too, is unnecessary and strangely out of place. It is as though Brooks could not stick with one interesting point to the book and felt that more, weaker subplots and themes were necessary. She was wrong.

In the end, "People of the Book" is frustrating for a number of reasons. Thoroughly flawed in terms of characterization but fascinating in terms of the dry history behind the story, it's a quick easy read. The writing might appeal to some readers, as might the inaccurate spirituality parts, but what should rightly bring a reader in is the premise and the history behind the true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah. Brooks' stories are interesting; the way she ties them together through Hanna's story is done less impressively. The book would have been much better served had the whole "investigation" subplot not existed and the stories had just been told as fiction straight up. It's a mildly enjoyable quick read mostly because of the premise and the interesting history but is seriously lacking in a number of other areas. 2.7.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Comment: I've just finished reading People of the Book. It`s a fascinating, compelling, enlightening novel.
I also enjoyed learning a lot of history, religions, traditions, different cultures. I thank so much the friend who introduced me to this marvellous writer.


Customer Rating:
Summary: Readable but full of wish-fufillment, PC drivel
Comment: I have now read at least 3 of her books, 2 for bookclubs and the third because someone at a bookclub whom I respected said it was good. Why do women like these books? The same women who like this drivel are perfectly capable of appreciating well-written books with fully-realized characters who resemble real people.

This has every cliche of this genre - don't know what to call it - how about "Color Purple Prose" after possibly the first book of the genre - The Color Purple. Men bad, women good. Moslems good, even Jews good. Obviously to Australians Jews are downtrodden. Medieval religious virginal Jewish women seeking sexual enlightenment. Medieval raped women finding sexual satisfaction in lesbian affairs. Throw in some grisly torture (which I must admit I skipped) or a plague (her other book). Interracial affairs no matter how historically implausable (from March - a 3rd book) are also de rigeur. Oh and the female superwoman like the narrators mother. And almost none of the female characters actually wants a relationship with a man.

The shoddy historical research reminded me of the Da Vinci Code. I almost got thrown out of a book club because I hated that book so much. Fantastical racial mixes - there's a guy who's 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 black, 1/4 Hawaiian and 1/4 Swedish female Olympic skater (superwoman of course) and has blue eyes. I guess the author failed high school biology and doesn't realize someone needs at least 2 European grandparents to have blue eyes.

I am going to study the format and write my own historical (hysterical) drivel and make a fortune.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Children's Books | Children Education | Parenting |