The Mathematics of Love, or: how to waste a week of your free time
Review from the book:
"BIRDSONG told the story of the First World War; ATONEMENT described the Second. Now there is THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE.
From the Suffolk countryside to the old Basque towns of Spain, Emma Darwin`s unforgettable debut tells the astoundingly moving story of Stephen, a veteran of Waterloo, whose suffering and secret lost happiness is transformed by love. Gorgeously written, fascinating and engrossing, THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE is a sexy, heartbreaking, glorious novel by a major new literary star."
Now... I am no Shakespeare, people. But I have read quite a few books in my life, and I have always thought I can tell what's worth reading and what not. So, if you don't have enough time for all the great books of this world and the next, spare some of it by NOT reading this book.
A list of adjectives to describe "The Mathematics of Love":
- boring
- banal
- fake
- overestimated
Oh, and please do not compare this to the fantastic Ian McEwan, because Atonement was a true masterpiece. This is NOT.
I am sorry, but it really looked promising and it proved to be simply disappointing.
The story is set in two separated times, and in several places: we have the Suffolk ex-soldier from Waterloo, who's lost a leg, who's moved to Brussels and is keeping in touch with a girl whose sister he had to marry but did not, and to whom she describes some episodes of his life as a soldier so that she can have inspiration for her drawing; we have this lady, who should be some ante-litteram feminist who is very liberal about what to do and say, and who rejects common opinions, although there are scarce examples of this, and most of the times she just looks like some fake rebel spinster. We have the girl, in present time (England, 1976), who's moved to stay with her uncle because her mother is a freaky fragile woman who's gone to Spain and see if she can buy a hotel with her new boyfriend, and the girl is living in this ex-college, which used to be the house of an ex-soldier from Waterloo (...), so she gets to know the neighbours, who are these original anti-conformist couple, both non-English therefore so artistic and free, who are both photographers, and with whom she discovers the pleasure and meaning of photographs, of art, of memories, to the point where she is given some letters from that same soldier from Waterloo and...oh, bother! I'll spare you the rest, and the other details.
There were such fake points in this book that just made me think "This woman really wrote this as part of her Phd and she has been published and she is selling like mad! How can it be???". Then you may think I am just being sourly jealous because the woman could do the Phd in creative writing and she even got her work published.
Still, there are passages that sound like this (I am quoting by heart, so it is not exact):
"I stood in the hall and looked around me, and it came to me that this is where Stephen must have walked; I thought of his face looking out of the window"...Damn, I am writing it better that it was! Nobody would write or think like that! Where's a proper description of a true association of ideas, woman? A decent epiphany, a good stream of consciousness? Because I understand this is where you wanted to go, only you made it sound sooooooooo fake! It really feels like she was writing and every now and then she would think "right, now here I should add some more streaming thoughts of the girlie..oh, and yes, a bit more sex, out of the blue, so that reviews will call this an elegant erotic novel".
Bonus (or malus, I should say), what do we find out in the end? Guess: there is a connection between our teenage girlie in 1976 and the ex-soldier from Waterloo. Oh really?
Out of interest (or if you have time to waste), this is the website of the author.
Final comment on the book: forgettable.
"BIRDSONG told the story of the First World War; ATONEMENT described the Second. Now there is THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE.
From the Suffolk countryside to the old Basque towns of Spain, Emma Darwin`s unforgettable debut tells the astoundingly moving story of Stephen, a veteran of Waterloo, whose suffering and secret lost happiness is transformed by love. Gorgeously written, fascinating and engrossing, THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE is a sexy, heartbreaking, glorious novel by a major new literary star."
Now... I am no Shakespeare, people. But I have read quite a few books in my life, and I have always thought I can tell what's worth reading and what not. So, if you don't have enough time for all the great books of this world and the next, spare some of it by NOT reading this book.
A list of adjectives to describe "The Mathematics of Love":
- boring
- banal
- fake
- overestimated
Oh, and please do not compare this to the fantastic Ian McEwan, because Atonement was a true masterpiece. This is NOT.
I am sorry, but it really looked promising and it proved to be simply disappointing.
The story is set in two separated times, and in several places: we have the Suffolk ex-soldier from Waterloo, who's lost a leg, who's moved to Brussels and is keeping in touch with a girl whose sister he had to marry but did not, and to whom she describes some episodes of his life as a soldier so that she can have inspiration for her drawing; we have this lady, who should be some ante-litteram feminist who is very liberal about what to do and say, and who rejects common opinions, although there are scarce examples of this, and most of the times she just looks like some fake rebel spinster. We have the girl, in present time (England, 1976), who's moved to stay with her uncle because her mother is a freaky fragile woman who's gone to Spain and see if she can buy a hotel with her new boyfriend, and the girl is living in this ex-college, which used to be the house of an ex-soldier from Waterloo (...), so she gets to know the neighbours, who are these original anti-conformist couple, both non-English therefore so artistic and free, who are both photographers, and with whom she discovers the pleasure and meaning of photographs, of art, of memories, to the point where she is given some letters from that same soldier from Waterloo and...oh, bother! I'll spare you the rest, and the other details.
There were such fake points in this book that just made me think "This woman really wrote this as part of her Phd and she has been published and she is selling like mad! How can it be???". Then you may think I am just being sourly jealous because the woman could do the Phd in creative writing and she even got her work published.
Still, there are passages that sound like this (I am quoting by heart, so it is not exact):
"I stood in the hall and looked around me, and it came to me that this is where Stephen must have walked; I thought of his face looking out of the window"...Damn, I am writing it better that it was! Nobody would write or think like that! Where's a proper description of a true association of ideas, woman? A decent epiphany, a good stream of consciousness? Because I understand this is where you wanted to go, only you made it sound sooooooooo fake! It really feels like she was writing and every now and then she would think "right, now here I should add some more streaming thoughts of the girlie..oh, and yes, a bit more sex, out of the blue, so that reviews will call this an elegant erotic novel".
Bonus (or malus, I should say), what do we find out in the end? Guess: there is a connection between our teenage girlie in 1976 and the ex-soldier from Waterloo. Oh really?
Out of interest (or if you have time to waste), this is the website of the author.
Final comment on the book: forgettable.
posted by Peggy @ 4:17 PM
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