Reviews

Herodias by Gustave Flaubert

raspy_reviews's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

acidicpie's review against another edition

Not a big fan of the writing style and i found it too boring 

eile_mc's review against another edition

3.0

Book club choice - not sure I would have picked this up otherwise. Interesting but at times I found it repetitive

lgpiper's review against another edition

3.0

My spouse was taking a class about some stories by Gustave Flaubert. This was one of them. She and I had quite some discussion about the background of the story, which comes from the Bible. It seems that I've spent more time reading the Bible than she, so I was able to comment on some of the goings on from a Biblical perspective. Whoa! It seems one's Biblical perspective is colored by the version one reads. I knew the NIV, favored by American, Southern, white Evangelicals, was unreliable, in that it had very clearly been mistranslated in a number of places so as to coincide with Evangelical political positions. But, even comparing KJV and NRSV shows differences in this particular story. Who knew?

Anyway, the book reads like the outline for a Cecille B. Demille block buster from the 1950s, starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brenner and Debora Kerr. Not very interesting reading. So, it's really 3*-, were that a thing.

luds's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

gjmaupin's review against another edition

5.0

Man oh man. Wow. This is remarkably good.

silbs's review against another edition

3.0

Nothing fundamentally wrong with it, just not my style.

mimirtells's review against another edition

2.0

Puanım 2/5 (%36/100)

Berbat değildi ama çok beğendiğimi de söyleyemem. Bir kitaba başlamadan önce genelde yorumlara bakan birisi olarak tarihten isimleri görmek beni çok zorlamadı. O yüzden kitaba başlamadan Kahin Yahya'nın hayatına bakmanızı tavsiye ederim. Roma tarihinden de birçok isim vardı: Herodias, Antipas, Salome, ve Herod Agrippa gibi. Kitap kısaca Yahya'nın ölümünü anlatıyor. Çok ilgimi çekmedi ama yine de okuması kolaydı, özellikle kitap kısa olduğu için. Roma mitolojisinden Bacchus'un (Dionysos) ismini görmek güzeldi. Araştırdığım kadarıyla Flaubert Oscar Wilde'ın Salome (1891) adlı oyunundan esinlenip bu hikayeyi yazmış. Wilde'ın oyunu da aynı olayı anlatıyor ve filmi de varmış. Bu yönden bağlantılı olmaları da güzel. Ben kitabı "idare eder" buldum ama bir deneyin derim.

fonril's review against another edition

4.0

"He" by John Connolly is a book I struggled with for the first half, had it not been for the fact that he is one of my favourite authors, I may have abandoned it. I'm glad now I didn't. It's a fictional take on how Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy may have relayed his life story. The style of writing was s bit strange, a lot of repetition in every sentence of peoples names. I did enjoy it when I got to the second half though and it certainly is a well researched view on the life of movie studios, relationships between husbands and wives, mistresses and of course the main relationship that became the mainstay of both their lives, that of Stan and Ollie.

robinsbooks's review against another edition

3.0

This "biofic" novel (is that redundant?) was written in a clever format but I never felt totally involved with the story. It's also disappointing to discover a favorite comedian was very human and very messed up. It did make me want to read more about the partnership of Laurel and Hardy and also do some Google searching for old photos.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance digital reading copy.