A Heart So White

Rating:
Summary: Patient people might like this book.
Review: If you like a detailed, psychological analysis of love and family relationships, then this is a book for you. You need a while to get into Maria's writing style. His style is not the most readable - a sentence can be a page long. After you get used to the sentence legths, it is a great book to read. The plot is well presented with surprising flash-backs and time intervals. I started to really enjoy the book in the middle chapters. From then on the pace of narration is much faster and interesting coincidences makes you curious about what might come next. The final scene is gripping and very emotionally engaging. Overall a very intelligent book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book by Spanish novelist
Review: The third novel by Javier Marias I read. But the subject matter is more or less the same of "Tomorrow in the battle think on me" : a ysterious death and how to deal with a secret. Sometimes Marias lingers too much on certain ideas, but as a whole the book is well written and masterly constructed. Also contains a very satirical view on the role of translators in international politics !

Rating:
Summary: When the author's pedantry drowns the reader's interest.
Review: This must be the most pedantic, long-winded and self-absorbed piece of fiction I've encountered in over two decades. I for one can't begin to fathom the cause for rejoice expressed by other reviewers. I found the novel to be wanting in good character developement, basic narrative skills and overflowing with an embarrasing sense of conceit and narcisistic self-admiration that bordered on the ludicrous. There was something very adolescent to the tone of this pompose, pretentious book that seemed to want desperately to convince us of how smart the author was. By the end I was far from convinced of that, and would have rather see the author work harder at some basic aspects of style, structure and character. Before you become a prima donna at least you should be able to sing.