Is there anything we all have in common? What could link an English Pilgrim en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Alan Turing, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, a middle aged computer programmer and a little girl? I suppose if there is one thing humans share that other creatures do not, it is our particular ability to communicate: we can tell stories, remember the past and form plans for the future. Louisa Hall’s 2015 novel Speak addresses that, but through her unique stories, which seem so […]
This time-spanning lit-fic didn’t really work for me.
So apparently this book is kind of like Cloud Atlas because it takes place over different time periods with different characters, and those time periods and characters are all connected somehow by recurring images and themes. But honestly, I wish I would have read Cloud Atlas instead because that’s supposed to be amazing, and while this was interesting, and I think my book club is going to get a good discussion out of it, I wouldn’t say that it works as a story. I feel […]
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It’s funny that I just happened to read Speak and Cloud Atlas within a few weeks of each other. (Omg, I’m so far behind on reviews!) I went into both not knowing much about them, but they’re so similar in structure and tone that it feels like serendipity. Like Cloud Atlas, Speak doesn’t have much of an overarching plot and has multiple narrators spanning centuries. Although Speak is less gimmicky in its structure, both books connect the characters through personal records and intertwining themes. I […]