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The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
So, this book! I have rarely read classics which are more than 100 years old and this book was a culture shock for me. What a loquacious book! My exact feelings were why this man is spending 2,3 pages writing the stuff which could have been explained in one paragraph, but then I live in a different era and am brought up with modern literature. it was so different reading paragraphs after paragraphs and pages after pages reading conversations which (from my point of view) were not even important in the narrative; reading them was so tiring. Characters of this book are all very eccentric and uncommon as I can't imagine anyone of them being seen as normal in this generation. It was like experiencing a high energy play with a lot of verbosities.
Dostoyevsky certainly has mastery over words since this book is filled with so elegant sentences and philosophies that one can highlight half the book just for its beauty. Some conversations were eye-openers but some really were over the top. I'm left with mixed feelings about Russian authors as I had a similar experience with Maxim Gorky; but then, maybe it's the culture of a particular country and I am still not evolved yet in a literary sense to appreciate these fully. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more Dostoyevsky and other Russian authors.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sometimes after reading a book, when you sit to write a review, you wonder what I can write so that it won’t belittle the greatness of that book. Something of that sort is happening to me after reading this one. Finishing this 240 something page book in almost one sitting, I am left with a cauldron-full of emotions. Childhood, innocence, magic, harsh realities, way of life and deep philosophies in simplest of sentences; that’s what this book is made of. Neil Gaiman is a wizard of words. This will be the third book of his that I read and every time I am left at loss of words when reviewing the book. Some sentences just steal your heart. At “You don’t pass or fail at being a person dear!” I was holding my kindle and trying not to overflow with emotions. Another sentence which shuts you up is “death happened to her. Death happens to all of us.”
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