Vanda (1)

I really really wish that I'd liked this book more than I did. It wasn't bad. In fact I thought that it was really well written and definitely extremely, extremely well researched. I also felt like I was in the 40s, sometimes uncomfortably, sometimes hilariously.

It's the story of Al, and her friends, which start out being Dickie and Aggie who are set to be wed, as well as her beau, Danny. But, once they're all in New York they also meet a man (who looks like Clark Gable according to the narrator Alice aka Al) named Max. And Al finds herself in awe of a singer named Juliana.

And then we get enmeshed in their lives. Mostly in Al's who's the narrator of the story, but also through her we see the lives of old and new friends weave in and out, around and about her. And that was where my personal main problem with the book started. I sort of got bored. I kept looking at the page number (never a good thing), and while the story was intellectually interesting, I never really felt myself pulled in. I never connected with Al in a way that made me want to finish the book in one sitting (or even in two). It just sort of dragged quite a lot.

I did love the characters, and how unique they were. Each of them were so very unique, but even with that going for it, I still just found myself fighting to put it down (and I did win and made it through the whole book).

From what was in the notes of the book it seems like this is also supposed to be a little more multi media than just a book, but all I did was read the book, and so perhaps that's the problem that caused me to feel like some parts were a little bit of a slog.

I'm not sure that I'll read the next volume. Perhaps at some point I'll try reading this one again. I don't know, maybe a second reading will make all the things I must have missed jump out at me, but for now I bid the 1940s adieu.

I was given this eBook in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)