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A review by lilylanie
Woman at 1,000 Degrees by Hallgrímur Helgason
3.0
This is the third book I’ve read in as many months that purports to be about a whole bunch of things but in actuality is 90% about World War II, which seems like an oddly specific coincidence. I don’t necessarily object to books about WWII but you have to be in a certain frame of mind to handle war crimes and in all three cases, I wasn’t really there. Hint: if you can’t stomach rape, choose a different book.
In this case, I was attracted to the description of the 80-year-old woman with a laptop and a hand grenade and was looking forward to hearing about her revenge on a world that has wronged her. That part did exist and I enjoyed it quite a lot, but it was only a tiny part of the narrative.
Overall I think the rest of it was well written but maybe just ... too much. I think that when you start to feel bored by endless tales of tragedy, loss and abuse, that’s a bad sign. The leaps between locations and time periods, through no fewer than 117 short chapters, also lent to a sense of almost numbness. Just too much.
That said, if you do make it through to the end, the last sentence is one of the best of the book.
In this case, I was attracted to the description of the 80-year-old woman with a laptop and a hand grenade and was looking forward to hearing about her revenge on a world that has wronged her. That part did exist and I enjoyed it quite a lot, but it was only a tiny part of the narrative.
Overall I think the rest of it was well written but maybe just ... too much. I think that when you start to feel bored by endless tales of tragedy, loss and abuse, that’s a bad sign. The leaps between locations and time periods, through no fewer than 117 short chapters, also lent to a sense of almost numbness. Just too much.
That said, if you do make it through to the end, the last sentence is one of the best of the book.