Jeanette Winterson has a talent of telling her stories in a very special way, which blurs the borders between the mystical and what we consider normal. This book combines elements of the historical novel and of the great art of storytelling. The book's focus on the story, with a disregard for realism, and with a style that appears more oral than written literature, reminds at times of the oriental tradition of storytelling.

The language is carefully carved, and the novel features some wonderfully quotable phrases. I strongly empathized with the protagonist, which is largely due to Winterson's ability to convey feelings in an incredibly immediate and touching way. I prefer Silver's part of the story to the historical parts featuring Babel Dark.

Even though I feel that the book slightly looses its appeal towards the end, I have enjoyed it tremendously.

Passed on to sun-beetle

thanks! took it home with me
looking forward to read it

29.7.06
Just love this book. It's written in a style which hits my nerve.
This book is Art!

will be taken to the next meet-up in Zurich

The book was recommended to me by sun-beetle. Because I had a long train ride, I just read it directly after taking it with me after the meetup.
I liked the first half of the book, especially the relationship between Silver and Pew. The importance of story telling, of oral tradition is very much emphasized in the book. I also liked that the distinction between reality and immagination often vanished and did not really matter in the lighthouse.
The second half, after Pew has to leave the lighthouse, was too much fragmented for my taste. In only contains singe episodes and does not tell a consecutive story. On the contrary, the story of Babel Dark continued in a quite consecutive way throughout the book.

RELEASE NOTES:

The book is going to be released at the meetup in Zürich.

taken home from the meetup tonight

I pretty much share Wildspitz's opinion.... I really loved the first part of the book, but towards the end, I got more and more lost.


EDIT: 11.7.2007: The book travels north to Germany by post.

Received the book just now. Thanks very much!

I gave up halfway through.
It wasn't bad. It's just that halfway through I realised I wasn't interested in the story at all.
So I quit.

Hello Patti,

I hope you'll enjoy this book more than I did. :-)