Review: A Very Involving Novel With a Good Story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 8, 2014
This is several stories together in one book. We start with Ulysses, a soldier at the end of World War 2 that helps a Japanese officer escape trial in exchange for gold and freedom. Telly Brensen, who is looking for his father Ulysses and trying to find his own place in the world.. Then there is Arthur Spevak, Telly’s friend from a young age and narrator of the book.There are many story lines going on at the same time. We start with Ulysses and a crew going AWOL for gold. Then we jump to Telly and his mother, her suitors, and a missing ring. We also follow Arthur, how he meets up with Telly, and his own adventures helping Telly find his father.This is a long book. I admit that I have tried to read it several times only to put it down. The problem I had what there was no fluidity to the stories. They also started and stopped everywhere with no notice of whom it was about and when it was taking place. There was a place in the beginning when people were walking through a river and one guy flashes back to doing the same thing and people being eaten by crocodiles then jumps back to that time period with no notes. It gets to be a bit tedious trying to figure out and follow the various plots.Having said that, if you can be patience and work through those sections, the remainder of the story does flow quite well. There are big sections that I got into about Arthur and Telly that made me feel for them and their personal demons that they were facing. I did feel for Telly when he was looking for his father.There is a lot to this book. Not necessarily bad, just boggy. If you can take the time and really go through it slowly I think most reader will like it. Unfortunately, this is not a quick read or one that you can skim through and figure out what happened. You will need to invest some serious time into this book.I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.