Monday, November 26, 2018

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay

This book did not grab me at all. The biggest problem might well be the author's writing style. Vast pages of prose uninterrupted by dialogue or action. A conversation would be described in prose form, as if someone was telling you about an overheard conversation. That might be one reason I never felt attracted to the characters. I felt like I was hearing about them second or third hand. I found myself skimming after a while, the prose was so long and tedious often uninterrupted by paragraph breaks.

The plot was boring. A photographer flies to Paris to meet his parents and sister for a family time celebrating the father's birthday. Nothing really interesting happens until after a fifth of the way into the book. The author seems to have a sexual orientation agenda too. I had to convince myself to keep reading. I would have stopped except that I did agree to review this book.

I rarely give such a low rating on a novel but this was was particularly uninteresting. The story line never grabbed me nor did I ever feel engaged with the characters. The author's writing style of present tense prose was almost painful to read. I would have preferred some dialogue from time to time. I found the ending to be unsatisfactory. One does learn quite a bit about cameras and photography and what happens in Paris when it rains so much the city floods.

You can read an excerpt here.

My rating:2/5 stars.

Tatiana de Rosnay is the author of more than ten novels, including the bestselling Sarah's Key. She lives in Paris with her husband and their children. Photo by Charlotte Jolly de Rosnay.

St. Martin's Press, 240 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

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