One thing
which I was pleasantly surprised by in this book is the extreme beauty of the
prose. I came across it by accident and I was struck by the wonderful sound
that seemed to come from the written words. I must admit that this aspect,
coupled with the fact that in the particular moment when I read it I was just
looking for such a reading, could replace something else that I liked less,
including the plot that was not exactly in my comfort zone, even if, going
forward with the reading, I found it at times very funny.
The
character of the mother of the protagonist is a wee bit stereotypical and over
the top, to stretch a bit into becoming two-dimensional, like all women in this
novel, while the male characters are much more credible.
Perhaps
another aspect that left me puzzled was the feeling of incompleteness that I
got at the end of the reading. There are many opportunities to take advantage
of to develop a much longer and more complex story, but just when things start
to come to life, the story ends, leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. I
wondered what would happen to the protagonist and the other main characters. I
wondered what was the motivation behind the book, what the author had really
wanted to tell. I got the impression that he did nothing but offer us a glimpse
into a world, that of classical music (and all human affairs that go around
it), but he didn’t really intend to show us a path that would go towards an
end.
There is
also to say that sometimes it is better to end a story without completing it
instead of giving it an ending running into banality. Also for this reason, the
extremely open ending, although on the one hand it seems to be a lack, perhaps
could become valuable.
Of course
the title is very fitting: it is a real “page turner”, that is a book from
which is difficult to break away and that you can read in a flash, because it
isn’t very long.
The Page Turner
on Amazon.com.
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