Ver itibaren Viazac, Fransa
oh i love this book (nothing specially)
** spoiler alert ** I was disappointed by this book. I was expecting so much more of the beauty of China. Instead what I read was a negative picture of a country bogged down with bureaucrats and history mostly from the Maoist period. I wanted more of the myths, legends and romanticism that must surely be found alongside the Yangtze. Most disappointing of all was that having travelled for weeks, and against the odds, making it far into Tibet (which was virtually closed to foreigners in 1995), Simon & Lily didn't actually make it to either of the two recognised sources of the river, instead they stopped short and journeyed back to Shanghai. I felt like a bride jilted at the altar!
I know lots of people adore these books (and I generally avoid the discussion of these books on Chicklit), but I hated this book. It was the literary equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. The setup of the world was quite clever, but I feel like Fforde focused more on being clever than on putting together a coherent plot with well-developed characters.