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Homecoming Book Cover

Homecoming
By Bernhard Schlink
Knopf Doubleday
January 2009 (reprint)
272pp

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

A child of World War II, Peter Debauer grew up with his mother and scant memories of his father, a victim of war. Now an adult, Peter embarks upon a search for the truth surrounding his mother’s unwavering—but shaky—history and the possibility of finding his missing father after all these years. The search takes him across Europe, to the United States, and back: finding witnesses, falling in and out of love, chasing fragments of a story and a person who may or may not exist. Within a maze of reinvented identities, Peter pieces together a portrait of a man who uses words as one might use a change of clothing, as he assumes a new guise in any given situation simply to stay alive.The chase leads Peter to New York City, where he hopes to find the real person behind the disguises.

The Short of It:

I liked it, but I didn’t like it and if this brief statement makes absolutely no sense to you, then read on.

The Rest of It:

Homecoming is one of those novels that is a story, within a story. I usually love these types of books. A book about a book? I’m there. BUT, this one promised to be an adventure and for me, it sort of petered out halfway through. As Peter heads out on his quest to find the truth, the story starts to get a bit muddy and then I started to skim, and then I was completely lost. By the end, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what happened, but after thinking about it for a day or two, I realize that I really have no clue.

To his credit, Schlink’s characters are lovely. I liked them very much and felt as if I really got to know them. If it weren’t for the strong characters I probably would have given up on the book because it just didn’t grab me as much as I expected it to. The ending was very strange too. Almost surreal at one point. It didn’t seem to fit the rest of the story.

Homecoming is my book club’s pick for this month so I’m hoping that the discussion on Thursday will shed some light on what exactly happened there at the end. Have any of you read it? If so, what did you think of it?

Source: Checked out from the library.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Book Cover)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
By Stieg Larsson
Knopf
May 2010
576pp

The Short of It:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is at once edgy and endearing. Edgy in that you often can’t believe what you just read, and endearing in that no matter what the main characters do or say, you still look forward to spending some time with them.

The Rest of It:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the final book in Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. The series is all over the internet, so I don’t feel the need to go into details over what it’s about, but for those of you who have not read any of the books, I will tell you this, it’s well-written crime fiction with a kick-ass protagonist. If you need the summary, click here to read it.

The series as a whole can be a bit graphic. There is a lot of sexual violence towards women and there’s lesbianism and some language too, but for some reason you just sort of take it all in without balking too much about it.

Since my thoughts are all over the place with this book, I am going to highlight a few items:

The background history on how SIS came into being (which is sort of Sweden’s version of the CIA), was interesting at times. I felt that it went on way too long though. There was just too much detail and it dragged during these parts.

Lisbeth is still one of my fave female protagonists. She’s complex and simple at the same time. Complex because only a few can figure her out, but as you read and really get to know her, you realize how simple her needs and wants are. She is a no-frills kind of gal. Lovers of Lisbeth might get frustrated with her lack of involvement in the first half of the novel.

Mikael Blomkvist is still the womanizer of books past, but he’s so damn likable and apparently very good in bed because the women just flock to him. I love his matter-of-fact style when it comes to relationships.

Erika Berger plays a slightly larger role in this book. I love Erika. Another strong female. I can see why Mikael and her hook-up every now and then.

Larsson’s use of small, insignificant details was a bit distracting this time around. Right in the middle of the story of the century, he’ll stop to describe the sandwich that Mikael makes, or the type of electronic device that Lisbeth uses (brand, model, etc.). These mundane details were out of place. I thought this especially odd since these characters are not new to the series. Plus, the mention of specific pieces of equipment sort of dates the story in my opinion.

There were too many “E” names and with similar spellings to boot. I had to really concentrate to keep them all straight. I found myself frustrated by this more than once.

The story wrapped up too quickly at the end. Another blogger reminded me that this was meant to be book three in a ten book series before the author passed away. I suppose everything had to be tied-up quickly since it was the end of the line for the series.

In the end, I felt a tad disappointed with Hornet. To me, it was the weakest book of the series but it did answer quite a few questions that were left hanging in the previous books. BUT, even with that, I still enjoyed it quite a bit and the series is definitely worth reading.

Source: This review copy was provided by the publisher.

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