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I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when I read this book, but it certainly wasn’t what I read. The style of the book is quite unique, and it takes a little while to get used to it. It is however, extremely well written, and I found that many of the beautiful lines in the book of the show (ie. “there seemed to be no other possiblities than those delineated by his music”) come directly from the novel! On the whole, I found most of the characters far less sympathetic in the book than they’ve been made to be in the show. For example, Tateh leaving his wife certainly does not have the same impact as does the situation in the show, where she has died. I enjoyed parts of the novel quite a bit, especially the parts focusing on the non-fictitious people, which were cut down in the show for obvious reasons. I read the whole book in a day or two. I actually have the “audio book” as well, read by E.L. Doctorow, which is very interesting. It’s the first time I’d ever listened to a book on tape, so I’m kind of glad that I had read the novel first, but it is amazing how listening to it can take you into a completely different world…kind of like listening to the cast recording! 🙂 |