By: Adam B.

Adam B. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:06:01 +0000

Yes. For me, at least, this story was full of the unexpected. That took some getting used to. A lot of stories throw in twists to keep you guessing but this book had a much more chaotic feel… almost like certain movies that are so entrenched in Asian culture that they seem nonsensical until someone explains them to you (I am thinking of my impressions of the movie “Hero” that we watched with Strickler at Moody). At times I felt like I was missing something, but then he would go and wrap scenes and characters up in a way that made perfect sense (which does not always happen when I watch Asian films). It’s hard to say if that was brilliant writing or poor reading (on my part), but it always kept my interest peaked.
One of my favorite things that he does, that I did not note in the post, is he always points out when his characters are not violating their own conscience and are yet acting sub-Christian; like when they have no qualms making a mistress of a married woman. This way the lead characters can be both despicable to our sensibilities and yet heroic in how they live up to their own principles. This made the book seem like a commentary on a past age as much as an entertaining novel. Fascinating.

By: Steven Konet

Steven Konet — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:46:39 +0000

I’ve never read this book, but now I need to. I should have let you read every book I read before I did, would have made things easier. You may have found it took too long for the true villain to be brought to the light, but this seems to be an important function in making a story more real. The fact that you didn’t know who to hate is something I tend to look for in books and especially movies. It’s irritating to watch a movie where one character is obviously and from line one, the bad guy/girl and the audience knows right away who to hate. Everything this character does is hateful at best or just plain stupid. This makes it easy to, one, identify the villain and two, hate them. Real life does not work as such. We’re fools to rush to dislike or even hate someone and those that should be disliked are often very good at masking their more foul motives and attributes. There are myriads of movies that “rush” the “bad” guy. This is also known as the flat character I suppose (another thing real life doesn’t normally employ). A movie I tend to like is American Beauty. However, for much of the movie it seems that it has used this horrible, juvenile tactic of inserting a flat, hateful character in order to make the story work and move. In the end, though, a twist is thrown in, so I can now like this movie.

Comments on: The Three Musketeers

By: Adam B.

By: Steven Konet