“This novel tells a true story. It involves a minor case, alrady forgotten among police chronicles […]” (204)
When I started to read the book, being informed that it is a hard-boiled style thriller, I was really excited. I personally like the thriller, and heist movies (not the book, sorry to say). As I expected, it was interesting to read through the book, following the timeline of the incident. Interestingly, the book was written in the form of documentary/encyclopedia style — not much conversation, and time specific.
However, it is ashamed to say, that I did not feel something. It does not mean that I felt anything from the book, but I could not find any of the author’s thoughts from the book, unlike the other previously read books. It may also be the author’s intention, or it might be because of my ignorance. I just followed the incident the author provided, and I enjoyed it as if I were watching an entertaining criminal movie.
Indeed, there would be a moral of the story the author intended for readers to feel (or maybe not, I never know). Again, it might be my ignorance of how I “should” feel toward this book. But it is a novel, and although it is based on a true story, It is “fiction” after all. Books are meant to enjoy and indulge the incidents and story the author is elaborating for us. Especially the thriller and the heist fiction, in my opinion, are more of entertaining genre for as a consumer.
It reminded me the book [If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller] I have read on a previous week, about introducing multiple style of ‘how to read’, including active and passive reading. I, in this book, follow the passive style of reading, just enjoying the book and not really went deeper of searching the author’s thought. I also thought that being passive on reading is not a good way of reading, and even ignoring the author’s effort of writing.
However, this book, or rather this ‘story’ helped me to think again about it. Although this whole course is about finding and feeling what the authors are thinking when writing this book, “book” is ultimately a pastime activity, which is meant to enjoy myself and enrich my heart with interesting stories.
“Our first goal is to engage with a series of interesting and challenging texts, devise strategies to read them well, and expand our horizons through this exploration of new texts, new readings.” (Inventing Romance Studies slides, page 4)
It might not be the answer of how to read this book (and of course, there is no perfect answer of how to read), or maybe it is a justification of my reading; many others would refute my thought. I even also felt like I might be wrong, and even asked myself “am I stupid?” However, remember the first goal of this course — engage with interesting texts, and devise how to read them well. This is how I read this “thriller” book, and that’s what I felt through this book.
So, my question is, what was the “initial” thought on this book? It’s not about the moral or lesson of this book. I am asking about the impression of this book. What did you feel right after finished reading this book?
The story itself can be captivating, but according to the reading I did, the characters are quite complex, very sordid indeed, and with too many personal complications. Is there an episode in someone’s life that has caught your attention? I don’t mean that, in your opinion, they were particularly sympathetic, but that you were intrigued enough to want to get to know them better and understand their actions?
when I started reading the book I did not expect the dark side of the novel. The numerous mentions of rape, the way females were treated and to some extent the amount of innocent people that unexpectedly lost their lives.