Zoli: A Novel
by Colum Mccann
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Book Summary Information
Author: Colum MccannEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-11
ISBN: 0812973984
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Zoli: A Novel
Book Review: Didn't connect
Summary: 3 Stars
I see I'm in the minority in finding this book flat and surprisingly wooden. The language never seemed to connect -- no sooner would an image gather momentum than it would flatten out into a banality. I tried to care about the characters, and should have been able to on the facts alone, but the author's habit of covering horrific incidents in the space of a paragraph or two, without developing the characters, kept me from doing it.
I hope everyone who did enjoy this book reads the author's earlier work, This Side of Brightness, a book that does all the things I found lacking in Zoli.
Summary of Zoli: A Novel
A unique love story, a tale of loss, a parable of Europe, this haunting novel is an examination of intimacy and betrayal in a community rarely captured so vibrantly in contemporary literature.Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the traveling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As 1930s fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, Zoli and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened by the world of books, which is often frowned upon in the Romani tradition, Zoli becomes the poster girl for a brave new world. As she shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced by the Gypsy people and savored by a young English expatriate, Stephen Swann.
But Zoli soon finds that when she falls she cannot fall halfway-neither in love nor in politics. While Zoli's fame and poetic skills deepen, the ruling Communists begin to use her for their own favor. Cast out from her family, Zoli abandons her past to journey to the West, in a novel that spans the 20th century and travels the breadth of Europe.
Colum McCann, acclaimed author of Dancer and This Side of Brightness, has created a sensuous novel about exile, belonging and survival, based loosely on the true story of the Romani poet Papsuza. It spans the twentieth century and travels the breadth of Europe. In the tradition of Steinbeck, Coetzee, and Ondaatje, McCann finds the art inherent in social and political history, while vividly depicting how far one gifted woman must journey to find where she belongs.
From the Hardcover edition.
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