Excellent historical fiction with wonderful characters, and writing full of both whimsy and pathos. Richard Burton, Samuel Clemens, Porter Rockwell & Excellent historical fiction with wonderful characters, and writing full of both whimsy and pathos. Richard Burton, Samuel Clemens, Porter Rockwell & Brigham Young are brought to life in great ways....more
While the story is not very gripping, the main purpose of this book is to portray Mayan culture and everyday life, at which this book does a great jobWhile the story is not very gripping, the main purpose of this book is to portray Mayan culture and everyday life, at which this book does a great job (for all I know). ...more
Based on the author's experience as a Spanish Civil War correspondent, a fictionalized account of an American who participates as a demolitionist, andBased on the author's experience as a Spanish Civil War correspondent, a fictionalized account of an American who participates as a demolitionist, and his group's attempt to blow up a bridge.
One of the things I liked best about this book also made it my biggest complaint. Hemingway obviously wanted the dialogue to match as closely to Spanish as possible, as that was the language the characters were speaking. As a Spanish speaker my self, I appreciated some of the literal translations. For example, "¿Que pasa con vos?", usually translated to mean "What's going on with you?" by any other author, is translated literally by Hemingway as "What passes with thee?". The whole book is like that. The end result just made all of the dialogue stilted and awkward. I think any non Spanish-speaker would be scratching their head at the weirdness of it all.
I don't mind when an author is concerned with letting his audience know how "enlightened" he is politically, morally, spiritually, etc. as long as he can tell a good story. Hemingway doesn't do this. The story is incredibly boring. We're supposed to get into the characters' heads and appreciate their motives and learn something about humanity. That's all great, but freaking give me a good story to go along with it, Ernest. ...more
This might have actually been a good book; I listened to the audio version, and while I know Marvin Payne is a beloved LDS actor for some people, he mThis might have actually been a good book; I listened to the audio version, and while I know Marvin Payne is a beloved LDS actor for some people, he made it practically unlistenable. I don't know how someone can narrate so stiffly and over-dramatically at the same time, but it was pretty awful.
Historical fiction is generally, for me, a less dry way of learning about a specific time period, this one dealing with the Civil War. I don't mind the somewhat contrived ways that authors sometimes use to insert their characters in different situations to give the reader as many historical viewpoints as possible, but the Mulan-worthy insertion of a girl into the Union army seemed kind of silly.
If I continue with this series, I may just read it, because if Payne narrates the next volume, I am not subjecting myself to that again....more
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