Wednesday, March 22, 2023

`The High Mountain of Portugal`, by Yann Martel




This novel is divided in three parts:

The first part “Homeless”, set in Portugal 1904 focuses on the experience of researcher Tomas, who is grieving the deaths of his partner, son and father. The narration describes how he dealt with it and how he travelled to the High Mountains of Portugal in search of a religious artifact.....then weird happenings

The second part “Homeward” set in Portugal 1938 has pathologist Eusebio talk in great length about writer Agatha Christie theory how similar murder mystery are to the Bible and by Maria Passos Castro request that he conducts an autopsy on her son. He acquiesced to her request which lead to some intensely surprising discoveries....then weird happenings....

The third part “Home” begins in Canada in 1981 where a seasoned politician discovers a strange connection with a chimpanzee (Odo) being kept in a research facility. He decides to leave his old life and recues Odo move to Portugal and develop and relationship that eventually brings must desired peace and freedom. Then weird happenings....

What to say I fail to grasps the great story here and hated every moment I spent with this book. Those mismatched stories stitched together didn’t work well I couldn’t decipher what message they were trying to pass and I was puzzled by the experience. What a tedious and unsettling read, it was real chore to get through it. The characters forget about them.

Boring, boring and boring some more. What did I read...if I remember ...was it a quest, maybe a ghost story ...oh a fable...naw... a mystery oh no...what... tell me Mr. Martel.

I spent way too many hours with this story. I was so stubborn and stuck with it way too long why didn't I simply ditch it after the first part.



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