11-25-2014, 10:51 AM | #31 |
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I'm up to 70% and captivated. I struggled around 10% and kept falling asleep while trying to read. I think I was too exhausted from long work days. So I started over to reread those chapters last weekend when I had time in a block and my mind was fresh.
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11-25-2014, 11:27 AM | #32 |
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The first 10% were a definite drudgery for me. I'm still only 20% in. Its going to take me a while. The writing is so small in the copy I got from the library.
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11-26-2014, 03:52 PM | #33 |
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So I am about a quarter of the way through this and I am really enjoying this. I'll mention that my library informed me that the Lacson-Locsin translation I wanted will not be available. So I obtained the Kindle version of the Guerrero translation.
So I find Rizal's sarcastic wit worthy of Johnathan Swift. Spoiler:
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11-28-2014, 08:40 AM | #34 |
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I look forward to this book, but it will be a while before I am able to finish it. Fortunately the excellent comments submitted by other members will be quite helpful. 😉😊
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11-29-2014, 05:27 PM | #35 |
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11-29-2014, 07:55 PM | #36 |
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12-01-2014, 10:18 AM | #37 |
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I finished on the weekend. This book suffered from the wrong time for me to read it. I have read a lot of historical this year with my challenge. This didn't me much I didn't see coming and told me in a long-winded way. It was an okay read. I am glad I read it, but it didn't captivate me much. If I had read this in January or February my feelings might have been different.
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12-02-2014, 04:54 AM | #38 |
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I'm a bit over 50% of the way through and must admit I'm still finding it a plod. I find it a bit disjointed and am not sure if there's a problem with the translation, or if it's because Rizal was just trying to make political comment disguised as a novel, rather than being a good novelist.
I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say - is it just HIMS and me, or do others have problems too? Bookworm_Girl and Hamlet, are you both still enjoying it? |
12-02-2014, 05:20 AM | #39 |
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I really enjoyed it even if it was predictable. There were times when I was totally captivated and didn't want to put it down. I didn't know much about the history of the Philippines so I thought the political commentary was interesting. I thought it was a nice parallel to our past read about the Spanish conquest of the Incas. The Spanish colonization had a different effect on this civilization that was remote and didn't have the mineral riches of the Americas or their own entrenched religious system. The Derbyshire translation has a good intro filled with history from a perspective near in time to the events.
I've also read a few books this year about the Reformation and Purgatory so that may have influenced my perspective too. Last edited by Bookworm_Girl; 12-02-2014 at 05:31 AM. |
12-02-2014, 09:21 AM | #40 |
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^I think I will look back more fondly on the book than I judge it now. I'll again say that I think timing means more than the book in a lot of cases for me. I am glad I read it, but maybe I was more hankering to read In the Shadow of the Banyan or the Stones Cry Out.
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12-02-2014, 03:29 PM | #41 |
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I wonder what the random dashes in the text are for, at least in the Augenbram edition. Are they in the original text? They seem nonsensical but perhaps there's an explanation eluding me.
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12-07-2014, 07:24 AM | #42 |
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Well, I have finally managed to finish it. I didn't read the introduction or do any background research because I decided that it had to stand or fall as a literary novel, rather than as an important book because of its reflections of the troubled past of the Philippines.
For me it didn't do well in the literary stakes. I found it very disjointed, lurching from one situation to another, and then with no more information (for example about Basilio and his brother) for a few hundred pages. Maybe Rizal needed a good editor. It's always hard to know how much of the problem lies with the translation. But assuming that the flow (or lack of it) reflects the original, then I don't think my difficulties with it can be laid at the translator's door. issybird, I saw on Goodreads that you gave it four stars, and will be really interested to hear what you have to say about it, especially as it was your nomination. Sorry I didn't like it better. |
03-17-2015, 05:28 PM | #43 |
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[QUOTE=Bookpossum;2996506]
For me it didn't do well in the literary stakes. I found it very disjointed, lurching from one situation to another, and then with no more information (for example about Basilio and his brother) for a few hundred pages. Maybe Rizal needed a good editor.[QUOTE] same for me - it did take me forever to finish it, but for reasons others than a "plodding through" feeling - various domestic distractions meant I've been having ridiculously little time to read, and my brain is paying for it Or to be more precise, I found the first three or four chapters slow going, but then I got in the rhythm. So though I found it invaluable as a witness of the time, place and culture - and similarly to Mishima and his tetralogy, knowing Rizal's endt made reading it all the more poignant. As a literary text, however, I did not enjoy it very much. It is a project book, aimed at firing people up, so some black and white was in order. Still, the almost saintly purity of various of the characters (not just the two main protagonists, but several others, like Tasio, Elias, and so on) did irk me quite often. Nevertheless I have enjoyed reading it, and is one of those books that I keep thinking back to long after I've finished it. |
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