Aug. 21st, 2014
Full title: The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh. This book was excellent, just the sort of archaeological history that I like. Damrosch does a nice job of painting all the major players, from Smith and Rassam in the 1800s to Ashurbanipal, whose passion for literature and ancient library made the rediscovery of Gilgamesh possible. Highly recommended for those who like this sort of thing.
It had been too long since I'd read something like this. Really enjoyed it.
It had been too long since I'd read something like this. Really enjoyed it.
My mom didn't love this third book in the trilogy, but I don't know, I really did. I liked how it came full circle in a lot of ways. I liked the parallels to The Last Battle (last of the Narnia books that Grossman plays off of so well) and the ways it very purposefully diverged from Narnia. I liked where Quentin was at the end. I liked the whales.
There were a few random details that bugged me: how did Eliot know where to find them in New York when they were in a house so strongly shielded? What happened to that kid Stoppard who was supposed to meet up with them in New York? I thought they only had one button, but suddenly they had two? Why didn't Quentin go hole up in Josh's palace in Italy? I found these little details annoying in a book so otherwise likeable - the way that, as an editor, I'll mark up a really good essay with a lot more red ink than I'd waste on a bad one, because it's just so close! But overall, thank you, Mr. Grossman, I loved these books.
On another note, as I was reading, I couldn't help constantly quoting Wash from Firefly in my head. "This is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land." Yep.
There were a few random details that bugged me: how did Eliot know where to find them in New York when they were in a house so strongly shielded? What happened to that kid Stoppard who was supposed to meet up with them in New York? I thought they only had one button, but suddenly they had two? Why didn't Quentin go hole up in Josh's palace in Italy? I found these little details annoying in a book so otherwise likeable - the way that, as an editor, I'll mark up a really good essay with a lot more red ink than I'd waste on a bad one, because it's just so close! But overall, thank you, Mr. Grossman, I loved these books.
On another note, as I was reading, I couldn't help constantly quoting Wash from Firefly in my head. "This is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land." Yep.