Where to begin in this big muddled mess?The premise for this novel was interesting - a set of short stories/novellas about characters residing in the same village in the Alentejo region in Portugal. And it would've been a good idea, if the novelist knew anything beyond the basics of Portuguese culture, i.e. Sumol and Benfica. But even if she'd done all of her homework, most of the characters weren't really fleshed out, while some were fleshed out too much - one chapter might run to a dozen pages while another might be triple that length. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad - which is why I gave it two stars rather than just the one. There were a couple of chapters that were very well written, but that made the remaining mess even more appalling. I also grew more and more infuriated with her over-reliance on foreigners; ex-pats; hippies; not enough Portuguese people, dammit. There aren't enough interesting characters in this small village you've come up with? You have to insert four separate sets of foreigners (which equal four separate chapters) in this small novel? Is this book about this village and its' Portuguese residents or is it about all the tourists and foreign flakes that end up there - which means it could've been set anywhere? Is the setting just an excuse to write about English tourists abroad?The whole thing came off very wrong, like she had some characters she wanted to write about and just pointed to a map and picked a place in which to put them.And I realize the next bit might not be important to anyone but a Portuguese reader, but it didn't feel like she'd ever really been to Portugal. Not really. Like maybe she stayed at a friend's holiday house somewhere in Portugal for a few days and looked up a couple of cultural bits and bobs and threw them in there for color. And sure, you can do that as a writer. You can write about Thailand while never having been there. But you really, really have to do some proper research in order for it to feel right and even then it might still come off as the fictional equivalent of Mrs. Mortimer's books.
Alentejo Blue is set in this quiet, idyllic little village called Mamarrossa. It follows the lives of the people who live in this village or are even just passing through. You've got the quiet thoughts of a farmer, an overweight cafe owner, a young, pretty girl who dreams of being a governess in London.Perhaps one of the most ironic things in this novel is that the people living in the village dream of escaping to bigger and better things, while people from the city come here to escape and find new meaning. This was my first Monica Ali, so I haven't read the famous Brick Lane which everyone seems to be raving about. I found the stories just a bit too... disconnected. Of course, perhaps it is meant to be, there are so many different points of view showcased, and the only thing connecting them at all is their geographical location. Somehow I think this is too thin a thread to hold this book together. There is a party at the end where the characters all meet and celebrate together and that's the only point where you feel that this is a community- and even then you feel like all these disparate people are socialising in little isolated pods, not relating to each other at all. I found the language too fairly unexciting apart from some surprisingly good monologues by the cafe owner- surprising because he isn't really a character who is dwelled on much- just a central character taken for granted. I could somehow picture the young, pretty girl and even the farmer more vividly than the cafe owner.And while Ali clearly has a knack for bringing characters to life in just a few pages, perhaps the problem was that she rushed through the stories and different points of view a bit too quickly- you didn't empathise with the people she created. They just didn't seem real, somehow. Still, this book was quick and easy to read, a perfect 'break' book when you're reading something rather tedious or complicated and need a break from it. So there's that.
What do You think about Alentejo Blue (2006)?
As ever with any book which is a collection of stories, some work better than others. This one isn't helped by having the characters who seem to do most to link the various strands together - the ex-pat English family - being really rather unpleasant people. Various reviews that I read while still part-way through suggest that the last chapter brings everything together. In reality, it merely focussed on the most annoying of the characters - someone whose appearance had been long anticipated and turned out to be a disappointment - and most of the others happened to be there at the time: minor interactions, but no real engagement in most cases. Some characters, mostly locals, have been painted sensitively, and I did get enough of a feel for the place to think it would be interesting to visit, but overall I was disappointed.
—Catherine
OK, here's the start of my Summer experiment, which I am oh-so-cleverly calling 'Fiction A-Z'. I'm going to use my local library and pick (and read) one novel or book of short stories from an author whose last name starts with successive letters of the alphabet. The catch--I can't have ever read a book by this author before. They might be newer books, they might be classics from authors I've missed to date. It just depends on what catches my eye the day I pick the book out.Fiction A-Z 'Book A': Alentejo Blue by Monica AliA solid novel written as a series of short stories/vignettes. Very realistic characters and some beautiful writing. It just never gets to the next level to being great.
—Michael
À Mamarrosa, petit village de l'Alentejo aux airs de paradis perdu, la vie n'est pas toujours aussi douce qu'on croit. Et pourtant combien sont-ils à tenter ici le rêve d'une existence moins amère ? Il y a Eillen et son mari, deux touristes à la dérive, Stanton, l'écrivain exilé en quête de sens et les Potts, un couple d'Anglais marginaux. Et puis bien sûr, il y a les locaux du village, ceux qui ont toujours été là, ceux qui reviennent, riches mais déracinés, ceux qui rêvent d'ailleurs. Tant de trajectoires et de destins en cavale. Tant de rêves à bâtir ou à ravaler. Et un lieu pour les entremêler : le Café Paraiso, nœud de toutes les destinées.« Parfois drôle, souvent mélancolique, en hommage à la "saudade" portugaise, cette galerie de portraits explore avec finesse le poids du secret, la violence de la modernité et la complexité des rapports sociaux au sein d'une petite communauté. »Augustin Trapenard, "Elle
—Cmorice
