the lollipop shoes - joanne harris
A book for my book club - not something I would have read on my own, I think (girly book! ew!), but it was alright, I guess. I started out with the Dutch translation of The Lollipop Shoes, but it's been proven once again that I am much too snobby now to read translations - I got most irritated with the story within a chapter or so and was forced (forced!) to buy the British edition in stead.
(On the other hand, I'm reading Roals Dahl's BFG to my youngest at the moment, and it's translation is just splendifarious and most enjoyable, so I'm not all spoilt, thank goodness.)
Anyways. Story. Mmm. I'm not totally convinced. I think I would have liked it better with slightly more mystery, a bit more left to the imagination on who was good and who was baaad. Not only with the women, but also with the men. It was very clear who we were rooting for - if you've got the mysterious free spirit on the one hand and the guy who tries to control what you wear and thinks your kid is an idiot on the other hand, it's pretty clear where the writer wants you to go.
I would have liked a bit more tempo too - cut about a 100 pages, give the romance some more ambivalence (or more of a fighting chance), make the daughter/lollipop lady thing a bit more suspenseful and bob's your uncle. The scenes at the end with the surrogate family and the doll's house make me look forward to the movie (if there ever is one), by the way. Especially if they bring in Johnny Depp, never mind him not being a redhead.
22-01-2008
