I
did not get this book and was misled by the blurb and cover quotes
to think that it would be `grand and powerful', `accomplished and
gripping', `lyrical'. It was none of these things. The writer has
managed to create three very detached and unlikeable characters. His
style is to have them wonder a lot about pointless, uninteresting
questions that he seems to think are deep and he seems to believe that
this will increase our identification with them, e.g. `Do you think it's
worse to be wounded or killed?'
Then Kenan. He's the brainbox who kindly takes his neighbour's bottles to fill them with water when he does his own. It's a long and dangerous route, complicated by the fact that her bottles don't have handles. He has two spare bottles that do have handles and carry more than hers. Instead of taking hers from her, leaving them at his apartment and using his more manageable ones (and filling hers from these when he returns), he navigates snipers and hills and unsafe bridges with these hard-to-hold bottles while constantly whingeing about it. Didn't have very much respect for him after this. In a terrible situation like this, when it's a life or death deal, you would use your head to negotiate your own safety and not be led by the whims of a neighbour for whom you're doing a favour.
When
the author uses incidental details to fill out his characters' lives
and homes, this is too obvious and doesn't sound authentic.
I
suppose what I'm saying is it purports to realism but doesn't deliver.
This means that the reader can't identify with or care about the
characters, which turns out to be a major flaw.
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