Alexander Schindler Schindler itibaren Meşecik Köyü, 56760 Meşecik Köyü/Şirvan/Siirt, Türkiye itibaren Meşecik Köyü, 56760 Meşecik Köyü/Şirvan/Siirt, Türkiye

Reading other reviews, people seem to either love or hate this book. I am one of the ones who loved it! It's a quick read because I just couldn't put it down. Now there are a few bits that are rough around the edges, but in the main it's an unusual psychological thriller. Danielle is a single parent to Max, who has Asperger's Syndrome. At sixteen he is getting worse, and she checks him into a renowned psychiatric unit for short term assessment. However, within a few days he is accused of the brutal, and bloody murder of a young fellow patient. Saving Max brings up all sorts of issues, and would make a great book group book for discussion. How far do you go to protect your child? Can you hand on heart say "My child didn't do this" when your child is mentally sick and in a psychotic break? Can you trust an institution just because the medical staff seem so well qualified? Can you trust the justice system to get to the truth when judicial rulings can seem so random? Can other people present a mask to you that is so good that you never can see the reality beneath? And just how far would you go against the system before you caved in? My tiny negatives are nothing against the pluses in this book. Why call the Head Nurse by the name of Kreng. "Nurse Kreng" just smacks of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". And why did we have a random character such as Naomi? I felt that she was put in just to muddy the waters. Also there were a couple of occasions when I felt that the author had Danielle do something that I felt was unbelievable. It seemed as if she couldn't think of any other way to move the plot along with the next bit of information. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was fast paced and interesting, and I look forward to reading the next book by this author.

Late in 1960s, when I first read “Anti memoir” I became very interested in Malraux, his adventurous controversial life. Reading The Temptation of the West, found him fascination of the Asian cultures and religions. When he wrote about “The rise of China” already in 1930s, nobody could believe him. When young French generation was fascinated by Nihilism, he wrote In “The Conquerors”: “if one can live accepting the absurd, one cannot live in the absurd”. What still makes me interested in Mr. Ministry of Culture, is that he said what he meant, lived as he believed, pragmatist, but not opportunist. Lazarus is a long narration about death, as a guest in our existence but defiantly not enemy of our lives.

Eh, it was alright. It was a good story but that was about it for me. Characters didn't seem very developed, like they only had 2 1/2 dimensions to them. The detail and lengthy descriptions of surgical procedures were neat the first couple of times but really dragged on as the book carried on. I didn't really feel like they were immersed in the culture of Ethiopia. It almost felt like they were seeing Ethiopia from a viewing platform, at a safe distance. As for the writing, it seemed as though everything happened very conveniently - like the author was trying to force situations to happen. I could tell that the author was not trained as a writer. While reading this book, I couldn't help but think of some similarities with Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible. Maybe this provided some sort of bias in my opinion towards the book because of how outstanding the Poisonwood Bible was.

Loved this series!