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| Name : | Persephone B. |
My Reviews
We selected this book to read over the Thanksgiving holiday. It seemed liked a good fit, with sweet potato in the title and food references throughout (including recipes at the end).
While everyone seem to enjoy the book, and a few readers even found themselves laughing out loud, others felt that the writing seemed juvenile and the humor forced.
Topics for book club discussion revolved around friendship, loyalty, and coming of age when you don't quite "fit the mold."
Is this science fiction, historical fiction, or a bodice-ripping romance? It felt as if author herself could not make her mind, and the result was a plot that wandered as aimlessly as its characters journey through 18th century Scotland.
Our book club members have very diverse tastes, but this one was unanimously loved. The characters are so vivid. The peek inside America's past is so genuine. The humor was the icing on the cake. This one was hard to put down.
When an author feels the need to drop the names of celebrities who have been sighted holding his book and then pronounces that I will be taught life-changing lessons therein, I suspect that the actual contents are more hype than substance. That is definitely the case with The Alchemist. If the author had simply told his tale, and let the readers be the judge, I would have been more open to enjoying it.
I know several people who absolutely love the author, but this just isn't for me. The characters are cartoonish (Minty Fresh? Seriously?) and the humor is juvenile. For a book club, it didn't offer much inspiration for discussion.
I enjoyed this book on so many levels - as an immigration tale, as insight into Detroit's turbulent history, and as a coming of age story with a definite twist. I found the medically-oriented sections a bit difficult to get through, but ultimately necessary to understand this very personal struggle.
I know the author was trying to drive home just how gloomy the environment was, but it seemed that every sentence contained an adjective synonymous with "grey." I found this lack of creativity in the description very distracting, and ultimately, I could not get through the book.
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