onsdag 16 mars 2016

Book review: The Sorrows of an American

Title: The Sorrows of an American
Author: Siri Hustvedt
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Year published: 2008
Pages: ~320
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Adlibris or if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: Islekar

The Davidsen family

Erik Davidsen is the main character and the story is about him but also the lives that cross his path. We get to follow Erik and his sister Inga trying to solve a mystery around his recently deceased father who left a strange letter. But the reader also get to follow the beautiful but cold Miranda - whom Erik fancies more and more - and her odd family relations. You also get to read detailed descriptions of his patients stories (he is a psychiatrist) and his dreams.

I found it quite hard to keep all the different Davidsens and their relationships and stories apart in the beginning, but after some time I got a hang of it. The book changes character perspective, place and time without any notice at all and I got a bit confused in the beginning. But when I got further into the book things got better and I could puzzle the stories together.

Believable characters, lacking story

I'm going to be very honest and say these characters, and mostly Erik since he is the main character, could have been real people. They are really complex to the point I had to ask myself if I was reading a biography of Erik Davidsen or if it was fiction. When that's the case the writer have very much succeeded in the making of the character(s). That lifted the story from being a little bit boring, but I have to say that the story is too slow.

Never throughout the book I get the feeling that I just have to turn page to get to know what happens next. It's more like a nature documentary that feed you with facts and then ask some questions and then give you new information that answers those questions. Not really thrilling, but great and believable characters. I recommend reading it to see and feel how real the characters are, not for the story.

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