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kdekoster's review
1.0
Recap:
When Carmen - a gorgeous, young, Dominican woman - sees Jose - the boy she had a crush on so many years ago - it doesn't matter that he is a police offer (who will soon be arresting her!), all of the old feelings come rushing back.
Jose quickly falls deeply in love, but it isn't long before he begins to show the darker side of his feelings. Carmen always thought true love was dangerous, but she still wasn't prepared for this.
Review:
Walter Dean Myers is the man. 145th Street, Street Love, Handbook for Boys... these books are phenomenal, convincing kids who think they hate reading that books might not actually be so bad.
But Carmen? This was a big miss for me. Written like the script of a play, or an opera in this case, Carmen is an extremely quick read. I initially envisioned using it for readers theater once I'm back in a classroom again. But as the story progressed, I felt increasingly disenchanted.
The main characters, Carmen and Jose, fall madly in love in the space of about one page. And then a few pages later they've broken up. And then a few pages later they're in love again. And then... you get the idea. The cycle repeats. And it was all the more irritating because there wasn't any real, rational backstory on WHY they were seeming to fall in and out of love. Carmen thought Jose didn't love her anymore because he had to go to work. Jose thought Carmen didn't love him because she wouldn't move to Puerto Rico. Sheesh.
And I typically think Mr. Walter Dean Myers is an outstanding writer. But the dialogue here? Not so much. It just felt choppy and stilted, like there wasn't a real person behind it. Here's just one example:
"Pain? Not love? Jose, maybe we need to slow this train down. I don't know if I'm ready to make a lifetime thing of this."
"Carmen, don't... Don't think of being away from me. I've given up my whole career on the force for you. It's going to be me and you. Don't even think about it being any other way. You don't want me disappointed in you. That would really piss me off."
By the time I reached the final pages, I didn't even care that it ended in tragedy. I was already thinking about the next book on my reading list... It's entirely possible that I just didn't get as much out of this story as I could have because I've never seen Carmen and really didn't know the story of the opera beforehand. What do you think, book lovers? Have any of you read this adaptation of Carmen? What am I missing?
Recommendation:
If you're already a fan of the opera Carmen, give this urban adaptation a shot. If you really love Walter Dean Myers or you're in the mood for a re-telling of a classic, I would choose Street Love, his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet instead. It's a novel in verse and had my students, male and female, spellbound while we took turns reading aloud.
Quotable Quote:
"How do you know you're in love? It could be swine flu." - Frasquita
When Carmen - a gorgeous, young, Dominican woman - sees Jose - the boy she had a crush on so many years ago - it doesn't matter that he is a police offer (who will soon be arresting her!), all of the old feelings come rushing back.
Jose quickly falls deeply in love, but it isn't long before he begins to show the darker side of his feelings. Carmen always thought true love was dangerous, but she still wasn't prepared for this.
Review:
Walter Dean Myers is the man. 145th Street, Street Love, Handbook for Boys... these books are phenomenal, convincing kids who think they hate reading that books might not actually be so bad.
But Carmen? This was a big miss for me. Written like the script of a play, or an opera in this case, Carmen is an extremely quick read. I initially envisioned using it for readers theater once I'm back in a classroom again. But as the story progressed, I felt increasingly disenchanted.
The main characters, Carmen and Jose, fall madly in love in the space of about one page. And then a few pages later they've broken up. And then a few pages later they're in love again. And then... you get the idea. The cycle repeats. And it was all the more irritating because there wasn't any real, rational backstory on WHY they were seeming to fall in and out of love. Carmen thought Jose didn't love her anymore because he had to go to work. Jose thought Carmen didn't love him because she wouldn't move to Puerto Rico. Sheesh.
And I typically think Mr. Walter Dean Myers is an outstanding writer. But the dialogue here? Not so much. It just felt choppy and stilted, like there wasn't a real person behind it. Here's just one example:
"Pain? Not love? Jose, maybe we need to slow this train down. I don't know if I'm ready to make a lifetime thing of this."
"Carmen, don't... Don't think of being away from me. I've given up my whole career on the force for you. It's going to be me and you. Don't even think about it being any other way. You don't want me disappointed in you. That would really piss me off."
By the time I reached the final pages, I didn't even care that it ended in tragedy. I was already thinking about the next book on my reading list... It's entirely possible that I just didn't get as much out of this story as I could have because I've never seen Carmen and really didn't know the story of the opera beforehand. What do you think, book lovers? Have any of you read this adaptation of Carmen? What am I missing?
Recommendation:
If you're already a fan of the opera Carmen, give this urban adaptation a shot. If you really love Walter Dean Myers or you're in the mood for a re-telling of a classic, I would choose Street Love, his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet instead. It's a novel in verse and had my students, male and female, spellbound while we took turns reading aloud.
Quotable Quote:
"How do you know you're in love? It could be swine flu." - Frasquita
blackbibliophile's review
3.0
I love the story of Carmen and Myers' adaptation is nice, but I don't like how it reads like a screen play. And the narrative of this book never mentions that it reads this way.
martha_schwalbe's review
3.0
How fun was this book? It's set in Spanish Harlem in the present and Myers includes the lyrics for some of the songs within the text. I found the story very entertaining and felt like I was watching the opera. The sad part was that I didn't know what dances the characters were performing, I kept slipping back in time.
The notes about the story and the music by Myers is interesting, absolutely worth reading, using perhaps as a springboard to other music and stories which is something I've been considering all summer.
The notes about the story and the music by Myers is interesting, absolutely worth reading, using perhaps as a springboard to other music and stories which is something I've been considering all summer.
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