The Blue Afternoon

Rating:
Summary: From the moment I read the prologue, I was hooked!
Review: A masterful storyteller, William Boyd captivates his reader from the onset. "The Blue Afternoon" is a wonderful and beautifully written story that encompasses romance, intrigue, crime, and passion, and one that truly holds the reader's attention from cover to cover. From the moment I read the incredible prologue, I didn't want to put this book down. There is a skillful blending of perspective here--the author (a man) has been eminently successfully in creating a story in which a woman is the narrator, and she, in turn, recounts the story of a man (her father)

Rating:
Summary: From the moment I read the prologue, I was hooked!
Review: A masterful storyteller, William Boyd captivates his reader from the onset. "The Blue Afternoon" is a wonderful and beautifully written story that encompasses romance, intrigue, crime, and passion, and one that truly holds the reader's attention from cover to cover. From the moment I read the incredible prologue, I didn't want to put this book down. There is a skillful blending of perspective here--the author (a man) has been eminently successfully in creating a story in which a woman is the narrator, and she, in turn, recounts the story of a man (her father)

Rating:
Summary: Unusual and Compelling
Review: A very unusual book which could be considered a period mystery, but stands as excellent literature on its own merits. The book starts in 1936 Los Angeles and follows a young woman architect for just enough pages for the reader to get interested in her. Then a mysterious man shows up and claims to be her father. After 70 pages she is then whisked away on a cross-Atlantic sea voyage to help her father find a woman in Lisbon. The bulk of the book then serves to explain why. In a slightly awkward device, the woman recounts, in prose form, what her father tells her about his life. This takes the reader to Manila in 1902 and follows a her father, as a doctor as he strives to bring modern medical practices to the Philippines, helps the occupying US Army investigate a series of gruesome murders, and watches his marriage fade away and maintain a love affair. There is also a subplot involving an attempt to build a flying machine. Events build to a crisis and collapse. By now the reader understands who the woman in Lisbon is and why she is important. Boyd's strength is building a complete description of time and place at the same time as he creates characters with great depth. This book won the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Love story from a man's angle, with plot aplenty
Review: As a woman, if you're ever so slightly bored of modern women writers, this is for you. William Boyd's achingly beautiful writing weaves an engrossing plot involving, but not limited to, a love story told from the man's point of view. And it's refreshing to read of a man's utter devotion, told ungushingly but with such feeling and realism. In addition to the love, there is the story set mostly in the Far East, a little murder, infidelity, characters which jump out at you but allow you to fill in the gaps.... and a prologue that will have you desperate to drop the kids off at school and leave them there all week while you finish. This is a book for everyone, and the only criticism is that you won't want to read anything else once you're done!

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed the book, with certain reservations.
Review: BLUE AFTERNOON, by William Boyd, came up to my expectations. I enjoyed it, as I do all of Boyd's novels. I found the plot intriguing, and the facts were really well researched. The main character, Carriscant, was a surgeon. I did find the details of the operations he performed, became a little tedious and not to my taste. A book I would recommend to my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Expected a love story
Review: I expected to read a love story but did not find one. Do you other women see this as a LOVE story? It is a lust story. It was enjoyable and good if you are visually inclined. I could not put it down because I wanted to find out what was going to happen.

Rating:
Summary: A miraculous find.
Review: I happened upon this book as it sat on the "New Books" shelf of the Seattle Public Library. I had never heard of Boyd at that time. The book is wonderful. Don't read reviews, read the first four pages. You'll be hooked. I find myself, three years later, remembering that the first controlled airplane flight was not at Kitty Hawk, but in Manila, and the pilot was the coroners assistant!

Rating:
Summary: Exotic locales add texture to bizare story of murder
Review: More than any North American or European writer working today, William Boyd understands the developing world in a manner somewhat like the greta Grahme Greene. Boyd's earlier books about Africa have been dead-on portraits of life in West Africa. You get the feeling from reading his African books of the ennui and decay caused by the heat, the humidity, and too many gins on the veranda. Blue Afternoons has many of the elements of Boyds earlier works - exotic tropical locals, the clash of European/North American cultures with those of the developing world. The exotic locales and glimpses into turn-of-the-century Philippine society gave the book an intriguing texture. The story, however, wasn't nearly as captivating. A marvelous backdrop for a contrived, thin storyline. I kept thinking that Boyd must have done an incredible amount of historical research to be able to evoke the time and setting with such descriptiveness. But he left out the most important part of the book - the story. Overall, not a very satisfying book. I recommend instead one of his earlier books, such as Brazzaville Beach or On Yankee Station

Rating:
Summary: Exotic locales add texture to bizare story of murder
Review: More than any North American or European writer workingtoday, William Boyd understands the developing world in a mannersomewhat like the greta Grahme Greene. Boyd's earlier books about Africa have been dead-on portraits of life in West Africa. You get the feeling from reading his African books of the ennui and decay caused by the heat, the humidity, and too many gins on the veranda. Blue Afternoons has many of the elements of Boyds earlier works - exotic tropical locals, the clash of European/North American cultures with those of the developing world. The exotic locales and glimpses into turn-of-the-century Philippine society gave the book an intriguing texture. The story, however, wasn't nearly as captivating. A marvelous backdrop for a contrived, thin storyline. I kept thinking that Boyd must have done an incredible amount of historical research to be able to evoke the time and setting with such descriptiveness. But he left out the most important part of the book - the story. Overall, not a very satisfying book. I recommend instead one of his earlier books, such as Brazzaville Beach or On Yankee Station

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful story of life by Boyd
Review: My second William Boyd book. A complex tale of love, life, murder, intrigue and ethics. Boyd keeps the reader guessing until the end and then some more. It's a brilliantly constructed story with real life characters. Kay Fischer's life was falling apart, forced out of her architectural partnership, left with almost nothing by her sly partner, she tries to re-build her reputation as an architect. It's not only her professional life that in shambles. She is still trying to get over her ex-husband, who turns up once in a while, and the death of her baby son. While all this turmoil is dragging her down, out of the blue a strange man, Dr. Carrissant appears in her life, changing everything. He claims to be her father, but she's never heard of him - for all she knew, her father was dead. Well, that's how the story begins and slowly unravels. One by one Dr. Carrissant tells Kay his life story. But he needs her help to find his true love, Delphine. The two of them embark on a strange and wonderful journey to bring their lives to a full circle. Boyd is a wonderful writer, who is able to keep the reader hooked, unable to put the book down. The characters are so real, it's a pleasure to read. He seems to have some fascination with flying, a theme that recurs in this book (as well as in "Brazzaville Beach").