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nferre's review against another edition
1.0
This was just awful. I loved her first novel, Brick Lane, but quite honestly, I just didn't care about the characters of this one. I found it disjointed, I lost sight of the plot - actually there really wasn't one, and in the end after the first 100 pages where I kept trying to figure it out, I just read it to finish it for my SIY challenge. Otherwise I would have dropped it at page 101.
bastiaanvjdg's review
2.0
Not a bad book, but not my cup of tea. Did enjoy the innkeeper deciding wether to eat a piece of cake for ten pages, and the couple getting two different existential crisises after visiting a skull-and-bones-chapel.
ssohn's review against another edition
3.0
I need to have a discussion about this book: was it a novel? was there a climax really? was it more a fictional ethnography? HUH?
beekaycee's review
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
sas408's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like this book very much. I thought it was very well written but not at all engaging. I read elsewhere that this was an interesting portrayal of life in a small Portuguese village. Maybe I'm too much of a city gal but I did not find it at all interesting.
3wilcotroad's review
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
canadianbookworm's review
3.0
I read this one on the plane coming home.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.
caterinaanna's review
3.0
As ever with any book which is a collection of stories, some work better than others. This one isn't helped by having the characters who seem to do most to link the various strands together - the ex-pat English family - being really rather unpleasant people. Various reviews that I read while still part-way through suggest that the last chapter brings everything together. In reality, it merely focussed on the most annoying of the characters - someone whose appearance had been long anticipated and turned out to be a disappointment - and most of the others happened to be there at the time: minor interactions, but no real engagement in most cases. Some characters, mostly locals, have been painted sensitively, and I did get enough of a feel for the place to think it would be interesting to visit, but overall I was disappointed.
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