Decidedly eh. The prose was pretty and Minou was a likable main character, but both of the parents really bothered me. The father--says he uses reason and yet believes his brother's paranormal bs; objectifies the death of a young boy and tries to subsume everyone, even his loved ones, in his pointless searches for Ultimate Truth. The mother--your typical redheaded manic pixie dream girl who gets painted as wise and in touch with some higher intuitive truth when in the story she makes really bad decisions that harm not only other people but also herself. Non-Minou characters did not read as people, they read as paper cutouts in a charming puppet show. Or something. A book written supposedly from the perspective of a child that didn't sound at all like a child. The writing is not bad; the prose is sparse with some lovely imagery sometimes, but it is not as stunning as the other reviews are making it out to be. I feel the name-dropping of philosophers is done constantly and it is pretty unbelievable that a young child would feel so invested in the subject of philosophy. Kant or Descartes are funneled into everything in this book, be it a conversation or just an innocent scenery observation. Even when preserving a dead boy's body for mainland collection you compare him to some philosopher. It's not a subject that particularly interests me, but if you're familiar with it then you may have a different reaction to the book. Maybe I just didn't 'get it'. I feel that with an interesting setting like that - a tiny island, the story could've been so much more.
What do You think about Minous Geschichte (2012)?
Lyrical and beautifully written but lacking a bit of substance. Enjoyable. 3 1/2 stars really
—brooke
