Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Review: This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass: A Novel

This Too Shall Pass
Milena Busquets

I was looking forward to reading this book. I loved the cover and somehow I had assumed it would be something a bit uplifting. Unfortunately, I found it disappointing. Blanca a forty year old woman has just lost her mother to a long illness. The story begins with her mother's burial in Barcelona and later moves to a vacation home in Cadaqués where the main character joins family and friends in an attempt to regain her life. I think the main problem with the book is the fact that it is hard to like, or feel sympathy for Blanca. She spent too much time whining about her dead mother and too much time trying to pick up men or thinking about having sex with, (it seemed liked) any man who crossed her path. Somehow she appeared more like a sex starved teenager than a mature woman. She also came across as a rather self-absorbed person and hence a difficult one to like.

The style of writing also didn't appeal to me. Paragraphs would often ramble from one scene into another without much definition. And, all to often the main character ended up having a mental conversation, or some kind of blame game, with her dead mother. For me there was simply too much “telling” in this story and not enough “showing”, which made it flat and at times rather boring.

Thanks to Library Thing and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.


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