Good-enough book, I guess, but I’m glad I checked it out of the library rather than buy it.
I had no problem following the three storylines. I classified them mentally into three distinct genres.
Late 1500s onward: Historical fiction and my favorite story thread
1980s: Romance - least favorite thread. For whatever reason, I just didn’t buy into the romance. Could have been much shorter. At first I thought the infection that led to Amanda’s inability to have children might be integral to the plot, but it turned out not to be. Since Amanda dies of a brain tumor at such a young age, the infertility aspect seems somewhat of an overkill. Why bother if only to kill Amanda off a bit later?
1995: Mystery - Like it better than the romance, less than the historical fiction. Seems run-of-the-mill as a mystery/thriller, with glaring holes and deus ex machina. (Is anyone so dumb as to run from the scene of a murder like Peter does? Yes, staying around and reporting the murder with all due horror would have slowed him down - and the book - but still.) Again, run of the mill, as is the villain not just doing away with Peter and Liz immediately - as Mary points out.
Three books in one - I just wished I liked them all.
I wasn’t thrilled with this book, and feel guilty I added it too our book clubs list. I guess I am tired of the back-in-time plots. I never paid enough attention to the “mystery”, if in fact Shakespeare wrote the scribbling a on side of me age. I’m hoping some CCers will solve this problem.
Maybe - but Peter as youngest heir gets taken care of with Amanda’s death and her will that leaves everything to him as her husband - no progeny. Again - overkill. Not having children yet would not have been that unusual for a young couple.
Thanks, ignatius! Maybe the author didn’t want to muddy up the water with a baby, otherwise it would have been hard for PETER to go gallivanting around England on his adventure. But, like you said, it wouldn’t have been unusual for them not to have had a baby yet, and the infertility storyline seemed a bit unnecessary.
Thanks for the name; I was in a rush this morning and didn’t take the time to go back and look at the posts ahead of mine, and I’ve read a few books since.
It was a good read, a little different story. I got a little bogged down with the Shakespeare-era story.
It doesn’t, however, make me want to read more books by the author.
Oh, and I was afraid Liz was dead when she showed up in the car, but I guess that was just a random appearance to let us know that she would be important to PETER like Amanda was.
Peter’s character was interesting to me, with his antisocial, awkward tendencies, but would he really have been interesting to Amanda?
You’re right – that scene is goofy and has to be a product of Peter’s overactive imagination. If any reader with a supernatural bent was enjoying the Amanda-as-spirit subplot, the sudden appearance of imaginary (living) Liz diminishes that aspect of the story immensely.
I chuckled a little at this:
Four months, ha ha ha. No matter how obvious Peter’s rights are to us (the readers), the appearance of the genuine Pandosto would have created such a stir that proof of ownership would have been tied up in the courts forever. Considering the convoluted story, the out-of-wedlock birth, the presence of forgeries, the brutal murder, the lack of DNA testing and the priceless historical items at stake, I think that, in truth, the case would have rivaled Jarndyce v. Jaryndyce in length. Anybody read Bleak House?
Yes, I think Peter would have been interesting to Amanda because, despite her money (or maybe because of it), she was also socially awkward and something of an outcast. Amanda had very few friends and dressed and acted differently than the other women on campus–and I also want to diagnose her with a mild form of OCD. Peter called her “organized,” but I think it went beyond that: “Her schedule was precise—she arrived at the library every day at two, spent fifteen minutes in the stacks, and read at the same spot in the reading room until six” (p. 13).
However, I did wonder what Liz saw in Peter. ($14 million? )
Well Liz sees a considerably less awkward version of Peter. I think Peter is fine to talk to once he warms up and if you have the same interests. I agree with the OCD diagnosis for Amanda. Not enough to be crippling, but certainly enough to be considered quirky.
Did anyone thing the mystery of who “BB” was unsatisfying? I just didn’t buy that you would initial stuff with letters that are completely unrelated to your actual name.
@mathmom – yes, I found the whole “BB” thing a little annoying. Also, the book (one of my freebies) I read right before this one also had a mysterious character named “BB” in it. Again, annoying!
Did anyone else figure out the whereabouts of the real Pandosto?
I accept the premise that the book is a combination of mystery, romance and historical novel. But I don’t normally read mysteries or romance novels (actually would never have started the book at all if I had been aware of the romance novel sensibility), so to be fair I can only judge The Bookman’s Tale as a quasi historical novel.On that level, I think it’s an unfortunate failure. The historical scenes are flat and unconvincing. When I read an historical novel I want to be transported to the place and time, and the author didn’t manage that at all. I decided to read the book when I saw it was the CC February choice and was casting about for a selection for my own book group for March. I think pretty much everyone would have hated it (the secret underground passageway would have been the sure kiss of death), so I’m going in another direction.
I don’t actually think mysteries or romance novels need to be judged too differently than more acceptably literary genres. Is the plot believable? Are the characters believable? Do the style of the novel work for the style of the story? Can you imagine the dialog being spoken out loud? Is there a sense of place or time? And finally, and harder to get at, but does the novel leave you seeing the world in a different way when you are done? There are novels where a secret underground passageway might be more believable, but somehow here it just seemed overwrought here.
I was interested that the author was worried that a murder involving bookdealers might seem over the top, so he included a real historical example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hofmann
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