The Blind Contessa's New Machine (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I really enjoyed reading this book. I think that the author of this book did a fantastic job of creating believable and realistic characters. She does this especially with the main character, Caroline. In the story, Caroline is gradually going blind, so the author allows the reader to really connect to the character by writing about what fears or other feelings that are going through her mind during the process ("The bright ocean was a real torment to her, with all the light from a thousand waves streaming into her limited eyes, but when night came, she was again equal: the whole world had also gone blind.")The only reason why I couldn't give this book a full five stars is because I found the ending to be so abrupt and unsatisfying. I feel like the author did such a wonderful job with the book, but fell flat with the ending. There was no sense of closure for me and it left me with a lot of questions that I found to be really frustrating. If I had to give a suggestion to the writer, I would say that she needs to go back and rewrite the ending in a way that doesn't seem so rushed. This delightful book was simply lovely, five stars for sure --until the absolutely atrocious ending! The writing is gorgeous, rich yet delicate, deft, and evocative. The descriptions of the progressive blindness of Carolina --the passages about her diminishing sight and her fears and the comfort of darkness and her dreams-- are really fabulous. The setting in the Italian countryside is lush, and the love stor(ies) are complex and genuinely moving. The small cast of characters came alive for me from the first page. I could hardly put the book down, devouring it in two days. But...The ending, which comes after some suspenseful buildup, nevertheless hits abruptly, leaves dozens of important questions unanswered, seems gratuitously dismal, and is ultimately unsatisfying. No, not merely unsatisfying, downright disappointing. For such a lovely, promising book to be tossed away in the last 6 pages is really a shame!
What do You think about The Blind Contessa's New Machine (2010)?
Lovely written book. Was sad about how it ended. I'm glad I stumbled upon this book at hpb.
—animaniac
Beautiful, bittersweet writing. Lovely for a teeny little book.
—Lou
i wanted to love this so much more than i did.
—Reese
An achingly beautiful tale of love and loss.
—boilermaker1959
