Offered Books:
Eat Only When You're Hungry by Lindsay Hunter
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips
Selected:
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips
Others Purchased:
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Fierce Kingdom follows Joan and her son Lincoln over the course of three hours, as their visit to a zoo turns dangerous when a shooter appears.
Right off the bat, that is a compelling narrative that seems easy to pull one in - An easy to relate to protagonist, a tense situation, a location that has not been overused to provide uniqueness to the story - but the novel never quite comes together to be anything other than okay.
It isn't a terrible novel, but it certainly isn't great. Large parts of it drag and Joan is not an especially interesting character for us to follow during this heightened scenario. While there is tension by the nature of the circumstances, Phillips has a hard time capitalizing on it.
It's hard to recommend this novel. While I think most would have an easy time reading this - the structure is fairly basic - there isn't much to keep the reader engaged after the inciting incident. It can be finished, but it would be more out a sense of obligation to see the story through rather than an enjoyable experience.
2 out of 5
If you did not notice in the picture at the top, this novel ended up winning Book of the Year for 2017 after voting by Book of the Month members. And it is a great book. There's nothing offensive about it winning the top honor - even if it isn't the book I would pick. The author, John Boyne, has ended up being a problematic personality, so I doubt I will pick up more of his books - and it makes it hard to recommend this one despite it being fairly good.
The novel follows the life of Cyril Avery from his birth in the late 1940s through to the current day. Cyril is a gay man in a time when it is not only frowned upon but an actual crime. He has to navigate various relationships - including the one with his best friend Julian - around this fact. It's amazingly well done and having the novel be told through the narration of Cyril gives a keen sense of why he makes choices that otherwise would seem strange minus that inner thought.
The novel does require a bit of a suspension of belief with regards not only to Cyril's parents, but how various other characters talk to him - they give far too much information to their inner thoughts, and not in the most believable way - but it does convey, somewhat realistically, how many people react when they discover someone they have known for a long time is gay. So that is appreciated.
If I had one major critique, it's that the book has several points where it could come to an end but... keeps going... and goes a little further. I get that Boyne is trying to tell Cyril's full life story, but the constant dragging out of the ending keeps the book from coming to a thematic close. Moments that should be climatic/character defining sputter a bit as Cyril's journey continues and the character appears not to grow so that the latter parts can be justified.
If I had one major critique, it's that the book has several points where it could come to an end but... keeps going... and goes a little further. I get that Boyne is trying to tell Cyril's full life story, but the constant dragging out of the ending keeps the book from coming to a thematic close. Moments that should be climatic/character defining sputter a bit as Cyril's journey continues and the character appears not to grow so that the latter parts can be justified.
It's really a conundrum - but all accounts this is the type of book that I would recommend to anyone interested in long novels - but given that John Boyne kind of sucks as a person, I don't really want to encourage people to give him money. I guess that choice will ultimately lie with each individual.
4.5 out of 5
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