The Illegal by Lawrence Hill

Publisher: W. W. Norton & company
Publish Date: January 25, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780393070590

All Keita has ever wanted to do is to run. Running means respect and wealth at home. His native Zantoroland, a fictionalized country whose tyrants are eerily familiar, turns out the fastest marathoners on earth. But after his journalist father is killed for his outspoken political views, Keita must flee to the wealthy nation of Freedom State—a country engaged in a crackdown on all undocumented people.

There, Keita becomes a part of the new underground. He learns what it means to live as an illegal: surfacing to earn cash prizes by running local races and assessing whether the people he meets will be kind or turn him in. As the authorities seek to arrest Keita, he strives to elude capture and ransom his sister, who has been kidnapped.

My Thoughts

While this was an interesting concept, and I found the story engaging, this just didn’t live up to the hype for me.  This is the first novel I have read by Hill and had high expectation being his previous novel, The Book of Negroes, has such a following.  I found some of the dialogue to be artificial and dragged on in parts. Whereas parts I thought needed more focus seemed to be brushed aside.  I also had a hard time with the country and character names, I felt like he was trying to make this into a dystopian novel but it didn’t quite work as one for me.

As a whole, I can’t decide why it didn’t quite work for me.  Maybe the imagined countries just seemed too fake for my liking?  I’m not entirely sure.  I found the characters to be likable, and was eager to see how everything played out for them. But I have to agree with other reviewers, in that the ending was too neat and tidy for me.  Not saying happy ending aren’t worth reading – but it just seemed a little too unrealistic.

This novel was picked as my March book club, and had it not been picked I don’t know if I would have picked up this novel and read it willingly.  But in the end I’m glad I did read it as it casts light on many issues in today’s society.

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publish Date: January 15, 2013
Format: Kobo 
Pages: - 
ISBN: 9780345534699

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.
 
Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

My Thoughts

While I had some knowledge of Charles Lindbergh and his life accomplishments, this book gave me so much more information about his personal life as well as professional, told through the eyes of his devoted wife, Anne Morrow.  There is nothing more enjoyable that learning about a strong historical figure and seeing how the driving force behind them is most often a woman.  A strong woman, who no matter what stood beside her controlling husband, sacrificed so much and was "his crew" until his death.

This novel had much more than I thought it would, assuming most of it would have been based on the famous kidnapping of Charles Jr. in 1932, this was only a portion woven in to a much deeper story.  A little bit too political for me at times, but that is a portion of Lindbergh I did not know about and still found it interesting to read about.  Charles and Anne's life and the fascination with it truly was the birth of paparazzi. 

This novel does what any great historical fiction novel does, gets the reader interested in the characters to then do a further search about them after reading to determine fact from fiction.  What I personally love about historical fiction is the just that, fiction woven in to make it interesting. As long as the basis of the novel stays factual, the small details that piece everything together can be as fictitious as the author can create, showing how much imagination an author really has, which is key when writing.

My Rating: ««««

Buy it Now!

The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.