Robert Langdon is at it again—fleeing from his pursuers in the dark of night, in the company of a stunning and intelligent female
accomplice, in a battle against time to make sure that truth wins and evil is vanquished. That is the basic premise of every Robert
Langdon book. It’s a bit tiresome, but
it’s also irresistible. The science,
art, and architecture tie-ins are always fascinating to me. Brown goes modern in this novel—the action
opens at the Bilbao Guggenheim and takes place largely in Gaudi’s Barcelona. I found the chase more interesting than the
revelation at the end, but I will probably pick up the next Dan Brown novel featuring Robert Langdon again, if there is one.
This short novel offers a nostalgic look at England in the 1940s and 1950s. Evie, having just lost her husband after a long marriage, looks back at the fateful summer when they met up at the pleasure palace at the end of the Brighton pier. Evie was meant to marry someone else, Ronnie Doane, aka “The Great Pablo,” a magician whose talents really pull in the crowds in the days before television kept people in their front rooms (and to whom she serves as the feather-plumed magician’s assistant). The novel tells of Ronnie’s back story as a London child war evacuee, whose second family in Oxford is so nurturing and loving that he is conflicted about going back to his real home when the war is over. But Evie marries Jack instead and is ghosted (quite literally) by Ronnie even in her final years of life. A wonderful story about people and relationships.
Comments
Post a Comment