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Lenaribka

Lenaribka

"We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate."

 

~Henry Miller

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A Note in the Margin

A Note in the Margin - Isabelle Rowan

It was an enjoyable read, pretty nice, warmhearted story a là Walt Disney that I finished in one sitting.

There were though some serious issues that prevented me from rating it higher.

Let me say so:

I like the principal idea of the book.
I'm not sure about the performance.


It was a lot of nice things but they lack depth.

Open this spoiler only if you've already read the book or if you are not going to read it!!!!!


My problems:

image Confusing POV's changing. Sometimes in the middle of the paragraph. I had to spring back in the story to understand who performed right now.

image I'm not a native English speaker to be able to distinguish between American English, British English and Australia English, I can't judge the language of the book but I was missing the spirit of Australia during reading. If I wouldn't have read at the beginning the recommendation of John's doctor to make a change of his lifestyle and get out of Melbourne, I don't think I would have known that the story took place in Australia. It could also take place somewhere in Siberia.


image David. My biggest problem. While everybody liked him and I had to read at close intervals what a nice and good person he was, I couldn't get it as well at the end of the story. The only certain thing I can say about David - he was a very quiet person who didn't talk a lot. It was so in the beginning and it remained the same up to the end. + He had mental issues, he liked reading, he had drawing skills, he missed his son, he earned money for living as a whore doing blow job in a public toilette. A lot of questions concerning David remained for me unasked at the end of the story. What did he do for living before he left the family. We only know that he worked very hard. What made him suddenly leave his family together with his son and became a male whore? There are the important questions for me and the writer owe me the explanation that I didn't get.

imageThe first sex scene in the book
Ah??!! Absolutely illogical. Was it there only to let us know John deep in his mind or pants gay??!!

image Marian. A girl friend of John. She is just disappeared. Erased from the screen play. Simply so. Of course it was clear that this relationship led nowhere but they were together up to the moment David entered in John's life. As John said to Marian "Please leave now", I understood it as "You have to leave the apartment right now, I'll deal alone with the situation, we'll keep in touch." Wrong! He meant "Get out of my life!" And she probably understood it, me not. Even in endless soap operas the secondary characters don't disappear simply so! Without weeping bitterly or dying in a car accident.

image The love story. Almost eye-roll. In spite of it is very sweet, it is also extremely unrealistic. Sorry, but I couldn't buy the suddenly passion between the high-payed manager John who took his year off from his business life to buy a book store outside the downtown and the homeless David who didn't speak a lot. Not that I refuse steadfastly to believe that something like this is possible, but how it was sold here...Sorry I couldn't buy it. Even as they came closer I still couldn't understand the feelings of John toward David, where they came from and why he fall so quickly and so badly in love with him.

image The absence of any negative characters in the story was surrealistic. Everybody was nice and ready to help and understandable. The only negative issues were the demons inside David and his runs away as a result of his endless exhausted fight against his mental problems.



I'm sure if you are in the mood of a sweet story that will keep your attention up to the end, hot sex, likable characters and you don't want to contemplate the mystery of love and bother yourself with a brain activity, you'll enjoy the book.

P.S Thank you, Juci, for a sweet Disney story!
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