Belated Book Post – The People of Paper & People of the Book

People of Metal…
(Naomi’s Photos)

Would you believe I found two books with such similar titles on the same visit to the library? But the similarities pretty much begin and end with the titles.

It is my understanding that  “The People of Paper”  by Plascencia is supposed to present an innovative form of writing.  Well, I’m afraid I’m not progressive enough to enjoy it. Large portions of the book are written in columns, with each character’s point of view appearing in a different column. I was prepared to accept reading like that for a few chapters, until the author went overboard, as far as I was concerned. New characters were added, remembering which character was which grew confusing and time frames jumped between different character’s tales (or between one column to the next) and I got totally lost.

I abandoned the ship.

On the other hand, People of the Book by Brooks is very easy to read. It’s historical fiction and each time frame is clearly distinguishable. The book is rich with details, in fact it seems ready to be adapted for the screen. You have everything Hollywood usually wants.

Which leads to  my main problem with the book. It is basically a good book but I dislike it when you can tell the author had a kind of checklist of “Hollywood” elements that need to appear in the book – sex must be brought up at regular intervals, unknown fathers, the mother who basically sacrificed her child for her career, etc. And while I’m all for “girl power”, I found some parts regarding the female heroine in every single period a bit hard to believe, particularly the really ancient times.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting book and I would recommend it.

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