I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I found Conrad’s prose poetry writing style difficult to adapt to. The paragraphs are incredibly long, and the narration is interjected by tangential thoughts. Moreover, it jumps from event to event and location to location, days or even months apart, abruptly and often mid-paragraph, and many times I would not realize it until a page later. Once I got past that, however, I did enjoy the story and the fascinating world Conrad paints. Although I recognized some, I didn’t pick up on as much social commentary for which the novella is known; but perhaps it was because I was struggling so much navigating through the book itself.
Reviews and Comments
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Jonathan Chue rated Le meurtre de Roger Ackroyd: 5 stars
Le meurtre de Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot, #4)
Cela fait tout juste un an que le mari de Mrs Ferrars est mort. D'une gastrite aiguë. Enfin, c'est ce …
Jonathan Chue rated Flowers for Algernon: 3 stars
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Until he was thirty-two, Charlie Gordon --gentle, amiable, oddly engaging-- had lived in a kind of mental twilight. He knew …
Jonathan Chue rated Poirot Investigates: 2 stars
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond… then came the ‘suicide’ that was murder… the …
Jonathan Chue rated The man in the gray flannel suit: 4 stars
Jonathan Chue rated Murder on the Links: 5 stars
Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon …
Jonathan Chue reviewed Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated …
Review of 'Heart of Darkness' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Jonathan Chue rated The Shadow of the Wind: 5 stars
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books', a labyrinthine library of …
Jonathan Chue rated Mysterious Affair at Styles: 4 stars
Agatha Christie: Mysterious Affair at Styles (2020, Warbler Press)
Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Set in the summer of 1917 in an Essex country estate, the story follows the war-wounded Captain Arthur Hastings to …
Jonathan Chue rated Little Fires Everywhere: 5 stars
Celeste Ng: Little Fires Everywhere (2020, Penguin Publishing Group)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, …
Jonathan Chue rated The Scarlet Pimpernel: 4 stars
Jonathan Chue rated Farewell to Manzanar: 5 stars
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (Laurel-leaf books)
"Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced …
Jonathan Chue rated Storm Front: 2 stars
Storm Front by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, #1)
The novels of the Dresden Files have become synonymous with action-packed urban fantasy and non-stop fun. Storm Front is Jim …
Jonathan Chue rated The Silk Roads: 4 stars
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
"Our world was made on and by the Silk Roads. For millennia it was here that East and West encountered …
