M itibaren Texas itibaren Texas

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I heard a lot of praise and recommendations regarding this book before I bought it. After all, it is rated as one of the top 100 English novels in the last century. The only reason it took me so long to read it was that I was not able to find it in near-by bookstores for such a long time. So, you could imagine the expectations I had! Well let me tell you, I was quite disappointed. That reaction is not due to faults in the book itself, but I was expecting something a little more... I don't know, eloquent? The narrative style was quite crude. The first few pages were a bit confusing because of the characters' speech and grammar. As a reader, you soon get used to that though, so it’s not much of a drawback *. The story itself was a bit on the disturbing side; 15 year old Alex leads a gang to nightly violent mayhem and crimes. He feels no remorse while committing crimes such as assault, theft, rape and even murder. On the contrary, he rather intensely enjoys it! When his gang members betray him to the police, Alex is sent to a prison. There, he undergoes an experimental therapy technique which causes him to relate any form of violence with a feeling of sudden nauseating pain. After a while, the authorities deem him safe to be released into society once more. Once out, he finds that his gang members have turned on him and the only people who are willing to help him are those whom he has hurt in the past. Since he no longer feels the same about violence, he begins to lead a different life… That’s the main plot of the book. However, the story is about choice, or how one can be stripped of choice. It spurs a lot of controversial ideas on how the “authorities” can strip the choice of people whom are found unfit to make choices of their own. * Actually, I’m quite impressed about how the author managed to make up a form of language all together! P.S. I also tried to watch the movie, but I got bored 20 minutes in… Maybe it was the timing, but I would have much rather read something else!

Interesting. A solid story but maybe it just wasn't for me. There was a tremendous amount of writing and time spent on the detailed explanations of (SPOILER ALERT) time travel which, for me, detracted and slowed the story down too much. The premise was very sound/plausible but the writing was a bit tedious for me. Not sure I loved it…not sure I hated it…just sure that it was OK. I would never pretend to tell Mr. Powers how to write but for me…speed it up a bit. The characters were well written and the tremendous number of psychic connections between them was interesting/thought provoking but maybe not my cup of tea. The Einstein history was an extremely cool part of the story and added a really neat dimension to the reading. Again, as with other books, it just wasn't my cup of tea. However, the writing was excellent and the story very, very solid.