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A review by bettermetal
Making History by Stephen Fry
2.0
This book didn’t need to be this long. The first 150 pages is just set up for the alternate history plot. But even then - the actual plot of the book is not complicated at all, you could recap it in the shortest time. Yet the book is just filled with passages that seem to serve no purpose. It was so boring I just couldn’t wait to be done with it.
The second problem is that a lot of the book was just unreadable to me. English is not my first language and while I don’t have a problem with the language itself I did have a problem with all the (pop?) culture references Fry has put there. I checked a translated copy – it has 171 (!) footnotes just explaining trivia that Fry had put there to be the smartest most clever person in the room. I mean it’s not an episode of QI, come on, 171 footnotes. And while I do speak English I unfortunately do not speak German. And a lot of passages set in the past for some reason contain it. It doesn’t make any sense. The characters talk to each other in German which we read about in English yet there are parts of speech that are not translated. I am fine with translating a word or two here and there but with whole sentences I just didn’t bother. Again, unreadable.
The characters are flat and uninteresting. The main character Michael Young is immature, arrogant, stupid and just unlikable. But I guess he has to be to even consider such a stupid thing as blindly changing history (being a history major even). It is believable in a way that the characters being what they are would do the things they are doing, it’s all in character. But it is just not interesting to read about.
I did not actually mind reading 1st person POV as I thought I would. It actually suited Michael’s character – all those I, I, I, me, me, me.
Barely two stars just for the 3rd last part of the book. The plot moved faster and was alright but it’s not worth it to read the whole thing just for that.
I’m happy to be done with it.
The second problem is that a lot of the book was just unreadable to me. English is not my first language and while I don’t have a problem with the language itself I did have a problem with all the (pop?) culture references Fry has put there. I checked a translated copy – it has 171 (!) footnotes just explaining trivia that Fry had put there to be the smartest most clever person in the room. I mean it’s not an episode of QI, come on, 171 footnotes. And while I do speak English I unfortunately do not speak German. And a lot of passages set in the past for some reason contain it. It doesn’t make any sense. The characters talk to each other in German which we read about in English yet there are parts of speech that are not translated. I am fine with translating a word or two here and there but with whole sentences I just didn’t bother. Again, unreadable.
The characters are flat and uninteresting. The main character Michael Young is immature, arrogant, stupid and just unlikable. But I guess he has to be to even consider such a stupid thing as blindly changing history (being a history major even). It is believable in a way that the characters being what they are would do the things they are doing, it’s all in character. But it is just not interesting to read about.
I did not actually mind reading 1st person POV as I thought I would. It actually suited Michael’s character – all those I, I, I, me, me, me.
Barely two stars just for the 3rd last part of the book. The plot moved faster and was alright but it’s not worth it to read the whole thing just for that.
I’m happy to be done with it.