- I keep wanting to get through one of A.S. Byatt’s books – so I decided to give this one a go since I love Norse mythology
I also recommend:
- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Summary from GoodReads:
As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new life, whose dark, war-ravaged days feel very removed from the peace and love being preached in church and at school. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods ? a book of ancient Norse myths ? and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. She feels an instant kinship with these vivid, beautiful, terrifying tales of the end of the gods ? they seem far more real, far more familiar during these precarious days. How could this child know that fifty years on, many of the birds and flowers she took for granted on her walks to school would become extinct? War, natural disaster, reckless gods, and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that Byatt weaves into this most timely of books.
My Review:
I am so torn on this book.
I desperately wanted to love it. Why? Because A.S. Byatt has a grasp of the English language that I lust for – it’s sensuous and beautiful and haunting and every amazing word you can come up with to describe words … but it’s so dang difficult to read.
The tiniest little thing would distract me as I read this one. I love learning about Norse mythology, so there wasn’t a lot new in that respect for me – but the story of this girl in wartime, and her favorite book – I wanted it to drag me into the story and make it come alive for me. But it didn’t.
Instead, I felt as if I was reading something beautifully written, but very clinical (? I think that’s the word I want to use). Instead of feeling like the pages were letting me indulge in chocolate, I felt like maybe I was eating fat-free candy instead. It’s hard to describe, because I really, really admire Byatt’s writing skills, but I think the storytelling was a bit lacking. However – I also don’t know if this was intended to actually BE a storytelling book, or if it was instead a frame for education on the mythology.
Anyways – if you are a fan of Byatt, I’m sure you will love this one. If you have lots of time and enjoy the feeling of rolling beautifully crafted sentences around in your mouth, then do what I did and just enjoy this one for that sensation.
Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!
