Map of The Invisible World by Tash Aw

-
I was looking forward to enjoying this book, but was greatly disappointed. It's not that I didn't enjoy Aw's great prose and use of language, I did. If not because of that, I wouldn't have survived 342 pages. What lacked in this novel, I find, was drama, suspense, thrill and the strength of the characters.

Almost all of the characters were given equal attention, so much so that it was so hard for me to fall in love with even one of them. Hence, I couldn't feel their loss, loneliness, sadness (there was hardly any happiness or joy in this book :P) and fear, as compared to Tan Twan Eng's characters in The Gift of Rain. Tan was so good that you could love every of its character. There were some parts I could hear myself saying 'Tan, you better not kill this character...pleeease....'

In Map of the Invisible World, I felt none. The story was hardly engaging, lack of drama and suspense. I'm so sorry Tash, but that's my truth. I mean, imagine lah, I didn't even feel afraid for Adam (one of the brothers in this story) when he was 'forced' to be a participant in an assassination plot.

To put it plainly, imagine this: After reading more than half the book, you can afford to skip some pages, and you still wouldn't miss anything important....

Next book please...

(Image of book taken from http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/admin/data/Map-of-the-Invisible-world.jpg)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A funny Bookertisement by Lydia Teh

-
Some of you may know who Lydia Teh is. She's a local author, who has written several books; one of which is Honk! If You're Malaysian. Recently, she has written another book titled Do You Wear Suspenders? and has even created a bookertisement for it. Check it out! It's funny! :) Must get my hands on this book! hehe If you're interested to get a copy, here's your chance! Just post her this youtube link on your blog, and you'd stand a chance to win yourself an autographed book by her! :D Oooo.....and did I mention, a RM100 book voucher too if you're lucky? *wink*
Read more

What happened to the book reviews??

-
Image
Dear bookaholics, If you were wondering why this bookaholic is no longer putting up her usual book reviews and interesting bookish finds, and only updates her blog with events, well, it's because I'm very tied up with something else right now. However, it'll end very soon...and my book reviews will be up again in July :) I'm looking forward to it as I REALLY REALLY MISS READING!!!! If you have found any good reads recently, please feel free to post your recommendations here or drop me an email :) Till then, keep reading!! (image from google images)
Read more

World Book Day: When, Why and Wow...

-
Image
First of all, HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY EVERYONE!! :) Let's spread the joy of reading, not only today, but every other day by sharing great reads with your friends and family, also, if you have too many on your shelves, give them to those in need...I came across this on guardian.co.uk and thought that I'd share it with you... "With or without TV debates, most thoughts at present in the UK are turning to the choice we will make in the forthcoming general election. However, the stark fact is that very many people in the UK will not be a part of that process; not because they don't want to necessarily, but because they lack the most basic skills to do so. They can't read. They cannot make a choice. It is a truly terrible democratic deficit." (More...) The thought of parting with your favourite books can be painful. To be honest, I had problems giving mine away. But just thinking of the impact it can make on a person's life helped the 'parting' a whole lot
Read more