Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Power Of One
I am currently in the process of reading The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Set in South Africa, it shows a world we are not familiar with. Although it took me some time to understand many of the customs and traditions they speak of, with time I became immersed. Centered on the life of Peekay, a young English boy, the story has some struggles, as he is so young. Many of the critical details are left out as in his age, he may not be observant enough to catch them. However, this flaw is overshadowed by Mr. Courtenay’s fabulous writing style. He manages to fit in an enormous amount of details with the vocabulary of a 6 year old. Not only that, but since it is portrayed from the perspective of a young child, observations are taken in, in a very different way. Rather than giving precise descriptions as an adult would make, he gives general overviews which not only give us a good feeling of his situation, but help to show us the emotions of everyone involved. This is what I love about this book. Although I am not too far into the book (100 pages), I would highly recommend it, it is truly amazing.
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I see what you mean by saying that it's a flaw when some character info is left out. I never like when critical info is left out; it makes me feel like I missed something in the reading, more so that I have a lack of the basic understanding to get to know a character in depth. More positively, I like your comment on the author's writing style. It always makes a book more interesting if the author writes in a certain way, and makes the reader feel a certain tone or feeling. Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a great book!
ReplyDeleteI have never really read a book from the total point of view of a child. It sounds really interesting that the descriptions aren't so precise, but still get the emotions and feelings across. On a different note, I actually like it when authors leave out parts of the characters at the beginning of the book, as long as they give it later on. This makes you want to keep reading to find out about the character.
ReplyDeleteI have read a book from the point of view of a child and I find it very interesting to see what children think of big and sometimes uncomfortable situations. The feeling and emotions that the child conveys is so artistic because of the way they see things. Even though he leaves out details about the character it gives the book a mysterious edge, because you might find it out later in the book if an event causes memories or recolection of events. Sounds like a great book!!
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