The Weight of Ink in What's the Name of That Book???

Mar 23, 2022 Lisa Vegan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z2022, goodreads-author, novel, bookclub, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, reviewed, historical-fiction, 1-also-at-librarything, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, zz-4star

I’m not going to write much of a review. I feel done and want to move on.

I suggested this book for my real world book club. I ended up by being glad that I did.

I struggled to get into it.

It was really long. It was a slog for me.

It was a marathon. I took me 5 weeks to read but it felt like much, much longer. (I read other books during that time too.)

I kept liking it more and more as I got further into the book.

Thanks to Rachel from my real world book club whose words encouraged me to continue. If ...more

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Mar 05, 2022 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: veganbookclub

If you like books with interesting and surprising characters, lots of plots twists and turns, where everyone is ACCOUNTED FOR AND EXPLAINED, in the end ... this book is for you!

If you like for there to be some mystery in the end, then, no. I can't believe it, but the author truly ties up everything and leaves nothing to wonder about! Personally, I like ambiguous endings, and this one doesn't have that, but THAT'S FINE. Since the book was longer than any of I've read in quite awhile, I wanted to If you like books with interesting and surprising characters, lots of plots twists and turns, where everyone is ACCOUNTED FOR AND EXPLAINED, in the end ... this book is for you!

If you like for there to be some mystery in the end, then, no. I can't believe it, but the author truly ties up everything and leaves nothing to wonder about! Personally, I like ambiguous endings, and this one doesn't have that, but THAT'S FINE. Since the book was longer than any of I've read in quite awhile, I wanted to tell the author, "YES! Thank you for the answers to all the puzzles! Yes, I didn't read hundreds of pages for nothing. ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT. YES, IT'S TERRIBLY CLEVER, AND YES, YOU TIED IT ALL TOGETHER! Hurray, now please buy yourself a whole bag of cookies, because this took a tremendous amount of effort."

And despite my bit of irritation at the neatness of everything (at the very end ... very much like the way Helen Watt's apartment turned out to be), I TRULY LOVED THIS BOOK. Why? Because I enjoyed all of the main characters and was truly sad to see that it was finally all over. Alas, now there is nothing more for me to read about these dear beloved souls.

It was slow-going at first, I think it took me about a month to read the first one-half to 2/3 of the book. Somewhere past the halfway point, perhaps a bit less than 2/3 of the way in, I started off reading around 5 PM on a Friday evening and read for another 7 hours or so, non-stop, no breaks and NO BRAKES, until I finished. I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. I had to keep reading and couldn't bear to go to sleep not knowing what was going to happen next.

This is not a book I'd recommend to "everyone" because I imagine most people would get bored by the philosophical discussions and the history about the Portuguese Jews going from Portugal to Holland to England ... for example, the letter that Aaron Levy sends to Marisa in Israel explaining the history ... clearly that was a literary device or ploy to stuff the history in there and get the reader "up to speed," but I imagine most people would still find that incredibly dry and dense. But you know what, that's only a small part of the book. Once the historical background has been explained, it is much more about the characters and the choices they are making.

Fun fact:
The bubonic plague is still around! You can still catch it from fleas from squirrels, mice, rats, rabbis, cats and other animals. If you have swollen lymph nodes and a fever, get it checked out. Nowadays, you're likely to be fine if you get antibiotics to treat it within 24 hours of developing symptoms. Otherwise, the bubonic plague can still be fatal. And it does NOT seem like a fun way to go!

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health...

And here's a bit more about the Great Plague of London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_P...

For me, even during the month when the book was slow-going, I always looked forward to my next opportunity to pick up the book, either on a train ride or lying in bed before going to sleep. Always looking forward to going back to it (even when it was slow-going) ... for me, that's the sign of a good book! ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 Cheryl rated it really liked it

This book admittedly has a VERY slow start; in fact, about 1/4th of the way through I almost put it down and gave up. And I also had a very hard time relating to the three main protagonists. While I love to read and learn, I have no burning desire to argue philosophical, historical or religious theories, and at times this burning desire expressed by the main characters (particularly the women) made them seem one dimensional.

What DOES happen as this book progresses is a gradual unfolding of each ...more

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Jun 17, 2022 Grace rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: parallel-timelines

What is it with the parallel timeline trope? So many contemporary historical fiction novels have to have a modern timeline. I always have the same issues 1) By having two relatively disconnected storylines, I am inevitably going to prefer one over the other and 2) The conflict in the modern storyline is always going to pale in comparison to the conflict in the historical one. These stories are always asking me to sympathize equally with, for example, a holocaust victim in the historical section ...more

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Jan 21, 2021 Ryan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, z2017-published, 2021

Whenever I finish a story like this, I’m left a little bit melancholy. I can’t help but wonder if these sorts of tales will one day be antiques...if - in an electronic age - the notion of understanding and rebuilding a life by the words they wrote down will be an impossible concept.

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