Book Review: Neverwhere, By Neil Gaiman

Book Review: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

My Review in a Tweet:

It feels like cheating when you point out the similarities between two works then the author himself mentions a character by name, but this book truly feels like a Lewis Carroll or even James M. Barrie story. Lots of suspension of disbelief tho.

My Full Review:

I truly dislike saying this about a book, but I have finally finished reading "Neverwhere". There are a couple of reasons why it took me so long, but the main one is the constant and intentional nonsense you are forced to deal with.

The biggest responsible for that is the worldbuilding (or the lack of it): Gaiman cheats when he describes the "Londres de Abajo" (I'm guessing he named it the "Under London" in English or something like that?) as this mirror reality under London (not very subtle) that just happens to have anything the plot needs and works with simple and straightforward rules, the most important one being the owing of favors. The randomness of the characters and locations they visit constantly throws you off.

In favor of the novel, I did like the "clasic fairy tale" feeling of it, where our protagonists meet some perilous tests, fierce foes and unexpected allies. All of these also had a certain "greek myth" or "folk tale" nature to them, like the Beast of the Labyrinth or the Huntress and the Warrior.

The characters are very likeable, but they fall a little short in being fully developed or having truly great moments for themselves. "This thing happens, then this other thing happens and we are done", the characters don't seem to notice any of it or truly react to the events around them, they just stroll through the plot. Only in the ending I felt like they were experiencing real consequences of the events in the story.

It was a nice enough reading, but I don't know if I would recommend it, except maybe for teenagers. I remain curious for the rest of Gaiman's works, specially "American Gods", "Good Omens", and finishing "Sandman" (of which I read the first two volumes).

5.5/10.

My Other 2024 Readings.

Besos

Book Review: Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen

My Review in a Tweet:

I'm not drawn to Non-Fiction, but this autobiographic tale, while a bit slow, captivated me. The fourth part is jarring because it's a random collage of stories; the rest of the narration was great, coming back and forth in her memories until the moment she leaves the continent.

My Full Review:

Trying to diversify my readings, I picked up again this book I got as a Christmas present back in 2015 but never managed to finish. I'm not entirely sure this book qualifies as Non-Fiction, since it's still very poetic in the way the author describes her years in her coffee plantation at the foot of the Ngong Hills, but I describe it as NF because it is an autobiographic narration of a period of her life.

I still had to drag myself a little through some parts of the book, but that's not on Isak Dinesen (or more accurately, on Karen Blixen, her real name), it's on me and the genres I usually read being quite different from this. The book itself is structured into five parts, each of them separated into smaller chapters.

Even then, I enjoyed this book: Dinesen/Blixen has an artistic soul and a taste for the beauty in the world that makes her descriptions and tales really outstanding and marvelous, giving the reader a careful and joyful glimpse into the Africa of the early years of the 20th Century. The love she distills for her farm and the workers that come and go in her life, while sometimes might sound "problematic" from our modern set of values, makes you ache when tragedies and setbacks occur.

I wish the expression "abanico cultural" (cultural fan, as in the accesory for the hot days) existed in English, because that's what this book opens in front of you: a range of cultural and sometimes religious ways of being human, with just a tinge of the author's bias, and even when she's more openly judgemental of the ways of the masai and the other tribes, she still sees the beauty and wonder of their lifestyles.

The final part of the book, when she describes how all the problems of the farm start to pile up and she has to sell and leave Africa, really makes you feel sorry for her, hoping that fate will smile to her and turn the downtrend of her coffee productivity. When she finally leaves, it's like waking up from a pleasant dream of a sweet memory, and you are left with that bittersweet taste of longing.

7.5/10

My other 2024 readings.

Book Review: Selección de poemas de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

My Review in a Tweet:

I can't be impartial with Bécquer, he's a central poet in one of the canon events of my life (my first love). Luckily, I could still enjoy his Rhymes, and I read for the first time his Literary Letters and his Legends (which some read like horror stories).

My Full Review:

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is probably the first poet I read attentively, and I have loved him ever since I read his Rhymes for the first time. I gifted my copy because I was young and innocent, so I had to buy this book again.

Fortunately, this anthology includes not only his Rhymes, which I read again with great pleasure, but also his Literary Letters to a Woman and his Legends (each marked with a spanish city or theme).

Becquer fits perfectly in this romantic idea of poets, a brilliant and tortured genius, whose poems fill an intrincated metric and respect the rhyme while doing so. His themes also reflect this pinning, this painful way of experimenting romantic feelings, of tragic love.

The Literary Letters and the Symphonic Introduction of his Rhymes are wonderful works of poetic prose, blooming with beautiful allegories and metaphors, exuding such a love for Poetry itself you find yourself tempted to pick up a pen and follow in vain the steps of this bard.

I can't say much more other than restating my love for this author and his works: Becquer remains a core author of my taste in poetry in particular and literature in general.

My other 2024 readings.

I woul like to put you in my bottom shelf then😏 you have a nice couple of tomes I. Your behind shelf 🍑🤭 and I sure have a big book to squeeze in 😏

Sincerely, CBD.

I'm very interested in your book, please send it to me. I need to see if it will fit 😉😏