1 The Glass Lake
Author: Maeve Binchy
Genre: historical fiction
Number of pages: 757
First published: 1994
Setting: Ireland, England
Rating: 5 stars
First sentence: Kit always thought that the
Pope had been at her mother and father’s wedding.
One sentence comment: The characters are
impressive, regardless of my personal feelings about them.
The book grips you from the start,
particularly the initial chapters. We meet a woman in a troubled marriage and a
suspected suicide. The woman's enigmatic nature contrasts with her seemingly
reliable and admirable husband, who evokes both sympathy and respect. However,
her later musings on her lover's attractiveness struck me as surprisingly
shallow for a major character.
We also encounter a lovable hermit living
in a cottage. The community adores her and frequently asks for her help in
resolving their difficulties. Believing she is acting according to her
conscience, she steps outside the bounds of the law. However, her views evolve,
and she eventually sees her actions as an interference with divine will. I find
this type of theology compelling, as it creates a profound shift in
understanding before and after a pivotal event.
My main criticism of the story lies in the
portrayal of the charming man who seduces the unhappy wife. He's depicted as
overly villainous, which makes it difficult to believe an intelligent woman
would fall so deeply in love with him. Additionally, the ending felt overly
dramatic; I would have preferred a more realistic resolution for the
characters.
2 Blood Test
Author: Jonathan Kellerman
Genre: mystery
Number of pages: 355
First published: 1986
Setting: LA
Rating: 1 stars
First sentence: I sat in the courtroom and
watched Richard Moody get the bad news from the judge.
One sentence comment: The prose is as flat
as the characters, and the plot is boring assuming one exists.
A psychologist is tracing a missing family.
The protagonist's career role is interesting, but the profession proves useless
in the story. In the beginning, it struck me that so many physicians were
looking for the kid who had cancer. Was American society in the eighties so
rich that they could afford so many resources for a kid taken away by his own family?
A very unrealistic story.