Book Review #2 - The Man in the High Castle + Slaughterhouse-Five
Hello and welcome back to the second book review for the 2016 Reading Challenge!
This review is brought to you by World War 2! How... exciting?
I want to preface this review by saying that I did not intend to take a month to read a book. I had to travel to Texas for two weeks in February and didn't have time to read much while I was there. That being said, I thought it had been MUCH longer than a month between this review and the last, so I'm glad it wasn't!
The first book I'll be reviewing is The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. This was for the category A Book Recommended by Someone You Just Met. The second book was Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This was supposed to be for A Book You Haven't Read Since High School... but I have a confession to make... I never read this in high school.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Category: A Book Recommended by Someone You Just Met
Rating: 5/10
Summary: Over-hyped book that tried really hard
The Man in the High Castle was originally a book published in 1963. Then it became a popular TV series and had people raving. I haven't watched the TV series and I don't plan on it, but when someone told me that it was about WWII if the Germans would've won, I was instantly intrigued. The only war I have ever had interest in, ever, is WWII. I used to read all about it in middle school and high school, I found the topic fascinating.
I picked up this book and was so excited to get into it and see what it would be like if the Nazis ruled the world. Well... it's not quite like that. The book is from the view-point of a few different characters: An Asian, a white man, a Jew, and a German. There are other characters involved: Italians, Swedes, and African Americans. They are much less important, however. Also it might be important to note that the USA doesn't exist anymore. It is owned by the Japanese and the Germans and split accordingly.
Without spoiling the book for those who might be interested in giving it a go, the book revolves around these main characters. In some ways they interact with each other, and we as readers see their involvement and are trying to observe the relationships between them. Americans are no longer powerful and mighty, they are at the bottom of the totem pole. The Germans are at the top, followed by the Japanese. The other races are considered unimportant, some of them wiped off the earth, and if they're caught in hiding, are arrested and sometimes murdered. All of the characters are introduced to a book written by a man who lives in a place he calls "The High Castle." This book causes a lot of controversy but is read none-the-less. Then... after some kind of exciting chapters, the book ends.
So I had two problems with this book.
1) The grammar - Each character would think and talk like you would expect them to in English. The Japanese character spoke very broken English. That makes sense: the war just ended, you're in what was the USA, you're still trying to learn the native language. But then, the author writes his thoughts the same way. So I couldn't ever seem to grasp what the hell he was thinking. It was very frustrating, and I almost quit reading the book about halfway in.
2) The storyline - While I'm trying not to spoil the book for potential readers, I have to just straight up say the I hated the storyline. Now, I don't need a start to finish, from-the-day-I-was-born-to-the-day-I-die storyline, but I like a good classic plot that has a beginning, a climax, and an ending. This book definitely does not have that. It just kind of tapers off into a stupid-boring ending. Which totally sucks because it got really interesting the last two chapters, and I got super into it and excited that it was going to end better than it started, and then nope.
So to wrap this review up: I am not a fan. I was not impressed. I liked the idea of the book, a post-WWII Nazi-run world. Cool story, bro. I did not like the writing style nor did I like the plot-line. Maybe my brain just couldn't wrap itself around the book, but that just tells me that it's not my style.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Category: A Book You Haven't Read Since High School
Rating: 7/10
Summary: What the hell did I just read?
Ok, I read this book in two days. It was an easy-to-read book, but not necessarily and easy-to-get book. Does that make sense?
A quick summary of this book would be this: A WWII veteran, Billy Pilgrim, gets "unstuck" from time and constantly time travels through his memories.
This is how the book is written, too. I read last night that Vonnegut was the first author to write about becoming "unstuck" and has now become a very popular subject to write about.
This book is interesting for sure. The first 50 pages or so, I wasn't quite grasping what was going on, but then he began to explain that he had become "unstuck" and often time travelled. The perspective is written just so; he would be a child, then a 40-something year old, then a soldier, and back and forth and so on. Once I understood that the book would remain inconsistent in time, I was able to just allow myself to read it without trying too hard.
Another interesting piece of the book were the aliens. Billy claimed he had been abducted by aliens and that they helped him to understand what becoming "unstuck" was actually about. The aliens said that life happens on 4 dimensions. Humans can only see 3 of them, but the humans that become unstuck can actually see in the 4th dimension, and therefore see all things happening as they were, as they are, and as they will be. This is how the aliens viewed time, happening all at once and happening one moment at a time. Humans could only see one moment at a time and in a linear perspective. The aliens pitied the humans for not being able to embrace life and death as they are, that you're not gone forever but you still exist in another place in another time. Fascinating, right?
At the end of the book I wondered what had truly happened to the main character, Billy Pilgrim. Did he have PTSD? Did he actually time travel? Did all of the things he talked about actually happen?
I asked my boyfriend what he thought (this is one of his favorite books) and he just simply told me that there are many theories as to what is actually happening to Billy Pilgrim. Some think that he actually died during the war and created these memories to cope with the process of dying. Some think he might have actually time travelled.
So to wrap this review up: I, personally, am not sure what to think of what happened to Billy Pilgrim, but it has definitely given me food for thought. I enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the idea of time being an non-linear thing.
To see my last review on The Fellowship of the Ring and Challenger Deep, click here!
This review is brought to you by World War 2! How... exciting?
I want to preface this review by saying that I did not intend to take a month to read a book. I had to travel to Texas for two weeks in February and didn't have time to read much while I was there. That being said, I thought it had been MUCH longer than a month between this review and the last, so I'm glad it wasn't!
The first book I'll be reviewing is The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. This was for the category A Book Recommended by Someone You Just Met. The second book was Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This was supposed to be for A Book You Haven't Read Since High School... but I have a confession to make... I never read this in high school.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Category: A Book Recommended by Someone You Just Met
Rating: 5/10
Summary: Over-hyped book that tried really hard
The Man in the High Castle was originally a book published in 1963. Then it became a popular TV series and had people raving. I haven't watched the TV series and I don't plan on it, but when someone told me that it was about WWII if the Germans would've won, I was instantly intrigued. The only war I have ever had interest in, ever, is WWII. I used to read all about it in middle school and high school, I found the topic fascinating.
I picked up this book and was so excited to get into it and see what it would be like if the Nazis ruled the world. Well... it's not quite like that. The book is from the view-point of a few different characters: An Asian, a white man, a Jew, and a German. There are other characters involved: Italians, Swedes, and African Americans. They are much less important, however. Also it might be important to note that the USA doesn't exist anymore. It is owned by the Japanese and the Germans and split accordingly.
Without spoiling the book for those who might be interested in giving it a go, the book revolves around these main characters. In some ways they interact with each other, and we as readers see their involvement and are trying to observe the relationships between them. Americans are no longer powerful and mighty, they are at the bottom of the totem pole. The Germans are at the top, followed by the Japanese. The other races are considered unimportant, some of them wiped off the earth, and if they're caught in hiding, are arrested and sometimes murdered. All of the characters are introduced to a book written by a man who lives in a place he calls "The High Castle." This book causes a lot of controversy but is read none-the-less. Then... after some kind of exciting chapters, the book ends.
So I had two problems with this book.
1) The grammar - Each character would think and talk like you would expect them to in English. The Japanese character spoke very broken English. That makes sense: the war just ended, you're in what was the USA, you're still trying to learn the native language. But then, the author writes his thoughts the same way. So I couldn't ever seem to grasp what the hell he was thinking. It was very frustrating, and I almost quit reading the book about halfway in.
2) The storyline - While I'm trying not to spoil the book for potential readers, I have to just straight up say the I hated the storyline. Now, I don't need a start to finish, from-the-day-I-was-born-to-the-day-I-die storyline, but I like a good classic plot that has a beginning, a climax, and an ending. This book definitely does not have that. It just kind of tapers off into a stupid-boring ending. Which totally sucks because it got really interesting the last two chapters, and I got super into it and excited that it was going to end better than it started, and then nope.
So to wrap this review up: I am not a fan. I was not impressed. I liked the idea of the book, a post-WWII Nazi-run world. Cool story, bro. I did not like the writing style nor did I like the plot-line. Maybe my brain just couldn't wrap itself around the book, but that just tells me that it's not my style.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Category: A Book You Haven't Read Since High School
Rating: 7/10
Summary: What the hell did I just read?
Ok, I read this book in two days. It was an easy-to-read book, but not necessarily and easy-to-get book. Does that make sense?
A quick summary of this book would be this: A WWII veteran, Billy Pilgrim, gets "unstuck" from time and constantly time travels through his memories.
This is how the book is written, too. I read last night that Vonnegut was the first author to write about becoming "unstuck" and has now become a very popular subject to write about.
This book is interesting for sure. The first 50 pages or so, I wasn't quite grasping what was going on, but then he began to explain that he had become "unstuck" and often time travelled. The perspective is written just so; he would be a child, then a 40-something year old, then a soldier, and back and forth and so on. Once I understood that the book would remain inconsistent in time, I was able to just allow myself to read it without trying too hard.
Another interesting piece of the book were the aliens. Billy claimed he had been abducted by aliens and that they helped him to understand what becoming "unstuck" was actually about. The aliens said that life happens on 4 dimensions. Humans can only see 3 of them, but the humans that become unstuck can actually see in the 4th dimension, and therefore see all things happening as they were, as they are, and as they will be. This is how the aliens viewed time, happening all at once and happening one moment at a time. Humans could only see one moment at a time and in a linear perspective. The aliens pitied the humans for not being able to embrace life and death as they are, that you're not gone forever but you still exist in another place in another time. Fascinating, right?
At the end of the book I wondered what had truly happened to the main character, Billy Pilgrim. Did he have PTSD? Did he actually time travel? Did all of the things he talked about actually happen?
I asked my boyfriend what he thought (this is one of his favorite books) and he just simply told me that there are many theories as to what is actually happening to Billy Pilgrim. Some think that he actually died during the war and created these memories to cope with the process of dying. Some think he might have actually time travelled.
So to wrap this review up: I, personally, am not sure what to think of what happened to Billy Pilgrim, but it has definitely given me food for thought. I enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the idea of time being an non-linear thing.
To see my last review on The Fellowship of the Ring and Challenger Deep, click here!
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