Ana V.

i was torn between 3 and 4 stars. in the end it came down to three.. but it's more of a 3.5 ... it's in these times that i wish GR had another? more detailed rating system.

serious review to come.

three days later

while here for writing a review, I'm still unsure about the rating. three or four? 3.5? what should it be? i guess we'll just have to go on without ever knowing this detail, as i'll leave the official rating a 3 stars and let you know that it might be a four. i'm so shady...

written in an epistolary manner, where the main character adresses letters to different people in his life, this book impressed me somewhere in its first part. honestly, i picked it up because i liked the cover of my edition, which was a white, skinny man with a black gas mask on, sitting at a desk and writting something, surrounded by a few objects, on a neutral background. i didn't expect anything mind-blowing about it, but I also didn't think i'd come up to be undecided upon its rating (which rarely happens after 3 years on GR, I rate books even before i finish them). so, imagine my surprise when i realised it was well written! i'm sure some other readers will say that's not true, that it doesn't really have value, but the truth is, if you compare it to most of today's literature, it does have exactly that.

the main character, Andrew, is really well described through the letters/documents the writes. you never get an accurate or real description of him in another way, but it's enough to see how he writes and who he sends his letters to in order to know him. Savage wrote a character who explained himself through writing.. the never-ending myth of seeing your true self on paper, i guess.

apart from Andrew being well written, nothing much happens in the book. he's just a desperate human being, seeking help and comfort wherever he can, and his tone varies from "i'm still ok with the world" to "that's it, i'm taking my toys and i'm leaving".

still. even if it has no real action and you never see the character really dealing with anything, this book is a very good example of how characters can become the focus of a reader's eye. it was all about Andrew, and as a reader, i wanted it to be about him, i wanted to see how much he can reveal of himself through those letters.

i'm happy i took this book out of the library. t'was a good lecture, indeed!