This book was definitely a fun little romp. Just the right pacing and level of danger, with excitement balanced with the familiar of a kid's routine and family.
On a more critical level, I was impressed (though not surprised, given how well he did this in The curious incident of the dog in the night time) by how well Haddon managed to capture the voice of a kid—their hopes and fears and misunderstandings felt very real to me, and not at all like the affectations of an adult imitating youth.
A lovely book. Frequently fun and yet also poignant. I was originally considering gifting it to two young boys I know, but the ending left me so bereft that I do not know if they're quite old enough to enjoy it yet.
I found I could see the author too much in the writing of this book. In spite of having chapters from several different characters perspectives, it never quite got to the point where I was hearing several different voices. Everyone's voice felt too similar, and that seems almost impressive when you consider this means a 9-year old boy who “was tested with inconclusive results for aspergers” at times has a voice similar to a 70-something year old woman. Unfortunately, the author's overwhelming voice also sometimes over-steps into being overly-saccharine.; the text seems to have too many with “deep-thoughts (tm)”, where introspection too-often moralizes.
That being said, I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. The two parallel stories were engaging and the imagery in parts was lovely. I was also comfortable with how the text incorporated September 11th in the story, which was a concern I had when starting the novel.
Ultimately, this story reminded me a lot of True Grit in that it is a very personal adventure story. There isn't a lot of glamour to it; it isn't a story about becoming a hero, or accomplishing the unimaginable, or changing the world they live in. It's really just a meandering journey of two brothers. But I really like the feel of the ending: where usually adventure stories end with the hero achieving some climactic task, leaving the reader to wonder how this character will live now that they've ascended above normalcy, in this story, the “final task” feels almost like a side note, and it is truly the return to normalcy which is the true goal and test for the hero. The reader is left with the satisfaction of knowing exactly how the character will live now that his adventure is over.
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