Winter in Madrid |
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Author:
C.J. Sansom
By Pan Books
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £4.63
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780330411981
ISBN: 0330411985
Label: Pan Books
Manufacturer: Pan Books
Number Of Pages: 200
Publication Date: 2006-10-06
Publisher: Pan Books
Studio: Pan Books |
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Historically good, 2008-10-12
I picked this book up while on tour and read it within a couple of weeks. At first I thought it had potential with the prologue showing the Civil war and focusing on one of the communist soldiers Bernie and then the air raids on London and how the people of London coped with this. However once the character goes to Madrid the plot slows right down and then doesn't seem to pick up again until the end and the plot twist, which I won't ruin for you.
I think the book is worth a read just for the historical value. It does show how bad the civil war was in Spain and if like me you don't know much about that part of history it does explain a lot.
By far not the best book I have read but still enjoyable
Tedious and implausible, 2008-12-27
I had been tempted to buy this book by the suggestion on the cover that it bore some comparison with the work of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but I was put off by the negative reviews on Amazon.co.uk. Then my wife bought it, so I had the opportunity to read it anyway. I found it very disappointing. The first three-quarters are very drawn out, with the narrative jumping between characters and time periods, and then the last quarter reads like a tsunami with all sorts of implausible twists and turns. None of the characters have any great appeal, and I don't feel I learned anything of value about Spain in the post-Civil War period.
Profoundly unfulfilling, 2008-12-22
The comparisons made on the book's cover, in combination with my ignorance of the period in which it is set, undoubtedly made this novel an intriguing prospect. Through the first one hundred pages, I read with both alacrity and interest, willing to forgive literary shortcomings due to the presence (at this stage) of an ostensibly strong plot.
Unfortunately, however, this strength is not sustained. The lethargy could be less frustrating if Sansom were able to retain engagement through other means, viz. imaginative use of lexicon and syntax, greater delineation of characters, and provision of further insight into contemporary events. Alas, he is patently and painfully unable to do so. Sadly, he appears to afflicted by a compulsion to employ the same vocabulary and phrases with truly frightening frequency, rendering the prose horribly formulaic; cleaves unremittingly to stereotypes, imbuing the work with an irritating banality; and provides only a scintilla of insight (which is particularly perplexing when one considers the length of this book and the fact that, for tens of pages at a time, very little happens, which, one assumes, provides an ideal opportunity for contextual detail).
Although the aforementioned weaknesses are clearly significant, they are relatively minor in comparison to the book's most profound flaw - namely the fact that Sansom treats his readers as if they are five years old. On a number of occasions I felt genuinely insulted by his deeming it necessary to explain things which an individual with even the most rudimentary inferential skills could understand with ease.
It appears that Sansom has arrogated a status as a writer. Dan Brown, Lee Child et al are not talented writers, concentrating primarily on plot and entertainment. However, the effectively self-parodic nature of their work reflects the fact that they will never pretend to be something they are not. Mr Sansom, meanwhile, seems to have endeavoured to reach a literary stratum far above that occupied by the aforementioned authors - and has failed catastrophically.
awful - mills and boon with a good cover, 2008-12-16
the characters are very 2d and has the author ever been to spain?
for instance there is a meeting at which they drink mugs of coffee with powdered milk! in spain in the 30s. i don't think so.
and towards the end our brave hero 'walks down the aisle' - you mean he converted to christianity and had a lovely church wedding - pull the other one!
this may sound picky but why bother to have an editor? in fact did the editor read the book?
Disappointing!!!, 2008-12-30
I bought this at Heathrow, in something of a hurry, and chose it because of the title and the cover: the picture on the front and the reviews on the back. I was drawn in initially and settled down for an enjoyable read but was soon questioning the plausibility of the plot and the over-use of coincidence. The characters were one-dimensional and unreal whilst many comments and descriptions were repetitive and laboured. I didn't finish the book and gave up when I could no longer bear to read, even one more time, of the heroine's 'threadbare' coat. I read for escapism but always hope to learn something and I enjoy stories about a time and place of which I know very little. Winter in Madrid, however, cannot bear comparison to books such as A Suitable Boy, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Wild Swans etc, all of which I found 'unputdownable' and which I reread at intervals.
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