Fionnáin reviewed The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Review of 'The Sound of Things Falling' on 'GoodReads'
1 star
Two stories about Bogotá in the 1970s-1990s that overlap through a protagonist (who "uses people", as the book highlights late on) and his friendship with an ex-prisoner that he meets in a pool hall. Predictable and slow, the story clunks along awkwardly before coming to an uninspiring stop. Some of this might be due to the translation, but the story reads like a television series, with awkward cliffhangers at the end of each section and unimaginative dialogue. The book is split into two sections, the present (1990s) and the past (1970s, the history of the protagonist's friend); the latter we are led to believe is pieced together from stories and documents, but it is presented as a narrative in its own right, holding the same writing style and structure. Some interesting sections and an attempt at building a dialogue about Colombia's capital, but I overall it fails to tell the …
Two stories about Bogotá in the 1970s-1990s that overlap through a protagonist (who "uses people", as the book highlights late on) and his friendship with an ex-prisoner that he meets in a pool hall. Predictable and slow, the story clunks along awkwardly before coming to an uninspiring stop. Some of this might be due to the translation, but the story reads like a television series, with awkward cliffhangers at the end of each section and unimaginative dialogue. The book is split into two sections, the present (1990s) and the past (1970s, the history of the protagonist's friend); the latter we are led to believe is pieced together from stories and documents, but it is presented as a narrative in its own right, holding the same writing style and structure. Some interesting sections and an attempt at building a dialogue about Colombia's capital, but I overall it fails to tell the story it sets out to tell.
