Enigma by Robert Harris
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Book Summary Author: Robert Harris Edition: Mass Market Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 1996-09-01 ISBN: 0804115486 Number of pages: 384 Publisher: Ballantine Books |
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Book Reviews of the Enigma
Customer Review: Enigma a bland exercise in endurance
Summary: 2 Stars
Enigma lacks the characterization and action necessary to sustain itself. Put succinctly, this is a book that "reveals all" at the end without ever having given you a reason to care along the way. Characterization comes across more like mood and brief, out-of-place revery than real motivation, and the reader is asked too frequently too slow down through the use of throwaway description and an odd focus on externalities. When an author spends three hundred pages on an investigation into the disappearance of a woman and the implications of stolen German cryptographs, and fails to tell us anything of value about the woman or those who are concerned about her, I believe that the novel has failed. The novel's weakness is in its inability to make the reader care. Harris chooses to tell the reader too many things instead of showing her; you can only be told how desperate a situation is so many times before you want to see it for yourelf. Harris doesn't give you the opportunity. Who is Claire Rommilly? Who is Tom Jericho? Who is Hester Wallace? You'll never really know, but somehow it's supposed to be important.