Review of The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodiles

I've bought this novel just a few weeks ago, in the beginning of August. I was on a date with my husband, for the first time without our daughter, and we were treating ourselves to a little shopping spree with dinner afterwards.
Me, always caught in a bookstore, let my eyes wander and they fell on this very one. Not hard to do, seeing the intensily bright cover, but still, I do read the back of the book and as it didn't give me any clue to what the story was about, it was mysterious enough for me to take it home with me.

Originally written in French, this novel isn't yet published in English. I've read it in Dutch, my native tongue and I liked it a lot.
It's the story of a family - two sisters, their mother and the people surrounding them, like planets circling three suns - in decrepit, even if not all is aware of it.

The main character, Joséphine, is a quite unstable, emotional, insecure but above all a giving woman, who in the very beginning of the novel is facing the fact that her husband has left her.
Iris, her older sister, apparently happily married to a well-established man, but a marriage devoid of any mutual feeling.
Jo's mother, Henriette, a vixen of a woman, cold in heart and venomous in thought.
Jo's two children, Hortense and Zoë, one coldly and attached and the other sweet and innocent.
Further we've got friends of Jo, friends of Iris, Henriette's husband and other small characters passing the revue.
All in all a whole room full of people, which I don't complain about since this is a novel of almost 600 pages long. The novel, chuck full of different story threads, make it a joy to read. I read it quite quickly, and it lends itself superbly to that. An easy flowing story that almost never gets dull. It's proof that not every succesful book is made of unexpecting turns of event. With a cliffhanger or two, this novel got me not so much on the edge of my seat, but very comfortable in my sofa reading sometimes an hour on end (which isn't that common lately due to my 9month old munchkin).

I'm hoping it will be translated in English soon, because this is a novel you wouldn't want to miss if you like reading about regular people doing regular things but doing so might accomplish greatness from that. What isn't to like about a story set in Paris, where love seems to have been born?

Personal rating: 4 stars
Thickness: 500+ pages
First published in 2006

Review of The Boy In The Striped Pyamas

The boy in the striped pyamas is a strange little story. It tells the tale of a young nine-year old boy, named Bruno who lives in Germany during WWII. He's living a happy life with his mom, dad and his sister in a large estate in Berlin. A Berlin already undergoing threaths which he doesn't understand quite well.

The story begins when he comes home and the housekeeper is putting all his stuff in wooden crates, because they're moving to another house. The fuhrer himself has been by for dinner and Bruno's father has been transferred somewhere else to do something especially important.
This is how Bruno wounds up in a house not nearly as exciting as the one he left, in an area not nearly as vivid and living as Berlin and with a strange view from his bedroom window.
As the reader you instantly know he's living on the edge of the concentration camp Ausschwitz. His father is responsible for the life and especially the demise of the jews locked up in that camp.

Bruno, with being so young, doesn't comprehend where he lives, and since no one is telling him, decides to find out himself. He goes on an 'expedition' which results in him meeting a little boy named Shmuell. Shmuell is one of the jews in Ausschwitz, but he is also a nine-year old boy the same as Bruno. They even share their birthdays.
Shmuell tells Bruno what happens on the other side of the fence, but in his childlike manner the real point never gets across. Bruno also a little naive never truly understands the danger he's in, the reason why he's on the 'good' side of the fence and what could happen is someone found out what he was doing all those afternoons spend with Shmuell.


I loved this story for it's simplicity. It's a children's tale of how life during WWII was like for both German children as Jewish children. It is a story I could see myself telling my daughter when she's older. A perfect way to explain what humans sometimes do to each other in a childproof manner.
Bruno is a endearing little boy and the same goes for Shmuell. How they both meander the ugly truth of the fence keeping them apart. A black spot in our recent history, and when a child's mind can't be wrapped around it, you know just how inkblack it really was.
When I was reaching the final pages, I was wondering how you could end a story like this. Maybe Shmuell would one day not be there, maybe the war would be over, maybe Bruno moved back to Berlin? I'm not keen on telling too many spoilers, the only thing I'll tell is that the ending was as perfect as the story itself, and it made me think awhile. Think about the victims of those days.

Personal rating: 4 stars
Page count: 218 pages
First published in 2006.

Review of The Shack

In short

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his "Great Sadness," Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. (Goodreads)

My two cents
I'm not religious in any sense of the way. I'm not even an atheist, because that too is a belief of nothing being there. I just don't bother trying to find an answer to the almighty question if we are alone or not. So, reading The Shack wasn't my kind of thing, you would say, but I actually enjoyed this little novel.

It didn't turn me into a believer, but I did agree with several statements made and I know I will try to live my life a little different than before I read this novel. Seems like I can't do the wrong thing, anyway, with God being especially fond of each and everyone of us.

The way God is portrayed in this novel, is a way I can partially live with. I'm against any kind of religion and the only institution I belief in is marriage and as being stated in this novel, that isn't even an institution, but a relationship. The God in here is a loving and all forgiving father/mother/sister/brother... much as we are towards our own children. He wants us to not follow those rules and protocols that only causes us to feel guilty about one thing or another.
Of course, asking for us to surrender ourselves to him to be fully and completely loved, is a bit farfetched for me.

This novel is a great little story, with a few paragraphs I found inspiring and others I found farfetched. All in all I would recommend it to people who are religious and people who aren't. Read it with patience and don't stand still with what you find ridiculous and focus on what could better your life.

Personal rating: 3 stars
Page count: 252 pages
First published in 2008

Review of Around The World In 80 Days

In short

Phileas Fogg is a particular being, with peculiar habits and he wagers a bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days, in a time before aeroplanes.

My two cents

Jules Verne, a literary nostradamus, for many of his sci-fi novels became reality eventually, for example.. From The Earth To The Moon, Twenty thousand leagues Under The Sea,..
This novel depicts the story of a man quite strange in habit, undergoing a wager that he can cross the world in 80 days solely using that day and age means of transportation, being steamers, trains, etc...

His journey is one full of wonder, mishaps and lovely misunderstandings, that it is easy to read. I loved the easygoing style it is written in, which makes me want to read more of his work.
I haven't got a lot to say about it actually, because it travels at such a high speed that I didn't find time to reflect upon bad of good aspects of the novel.
Only the ending let me down a bit, too much of deus ex machina.

Personal rating: 3 stars
Page count: 288 pages
First published in 1873