| 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Darlington
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy Used: £2.17
You Save: £12.82 (86%)
Used (16) from £2.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 79636
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 329
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0593053117
EAN: 9780593053119
ASIN: 0593053117
Publication Date: June 1, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Well worth the read August 12, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good book I was gripped and just kept reading it was a shame when it was finished.
Andrew.
Excellence July 11, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I seldom come accross a book which grips me from the onset. Mr Darlington writes as though he is speaking into your eyes. wonderful account of a wonderful journey, if only we were all so brave with a narrow dog!
 Shipping News all over again? July 7, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Do not be alarmed. I haven't mistakenly submitted my "Shipping News" review in the "Narrow Dog" section. I'm just making a comparison between the two. Particularly with respect to the style of writing. They both share the eccentric, staccato style of writing. The short sentences. It's. Difficult. To. Read. If. You. Only. Write. Short. Sentences. Do they even qualify as sentences? That's a question for more intelligent people. As for me, I simply stopped reading after about a dozen pages. Reading, I reasoned, was supposed to be enjoyable, not a chore. Life's too short to waste time trying to untangle things. The lack of quotation marks bothered me too. Standing back and looking at things in hindsight, I think I was lured in by the attractive cover with the bright colours and the cute dog.
Narrow Dog that didn't deliver... July 1, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I really wanted to enjoy this book. I am a fan of travel books, France and eccentric writers so I thought this would be a book I would enjoy. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The style of writing is difficult, if not impossible, to get used to. Darlington writes using impossibly short sentences which leave the reader removing full stops and adding commas just to allow a more relaxed scanning of the text. The lack of speech marks and strange use of punctuation is distracting. The 'he said', 'she said' style is infuriating!
All this said, the book might have been rescused by strong descriptive prose, however, this too is lacking. Darlington never seemed to capture the essence of the places he visited. His stories are intentionally inaccurate and exaggerated, which is fine, but this tends to leave the reader short-changed.
I struggled on to just over half-way and have now given up!
One of the funniest books I have read, EVER! June 7, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I finished this book last night and I was genuinely gutted to have reached the end of the journey, but as Terry says, it's not the destination but the how you get there that matters.
The author has a very distinctive style that takes a little getting used to - lack of speech marks means you have to think about following dialogue. But it's worth it! Another brilliant technique is translating French back into English very literally - capturing the French way of exaggeration and flourishing language so well.
Jim is the best character in the book but there are many, many other amusing people along the way. And the fabulous, poetic descrpitions of the French paysage will make you want to sail down the same canals! (Perhaps not the Belgian bits).
|
|
|
