Stone Fall A Novel Iain Pears 9780385522847 Books
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Stone Fall A Novel Iain Pears 9780385522847 Books
I'm not sure there are enough adjectives to describe how good this book is..let's start with the prose! Beautiful, flowing and captivating. The story, in signature Pears style, is told through different characters and at different times in the narrative. It's still amazing to me how good he is at making each character so unique, their voices come through in the narrative in an incredibly realistic way. The Instance of the Fingerpost used much more difficult characters, but this is just as good.The story involves the mystery of the death of a banker, a very successful banker John Stone. He supposedly has fallen from a window in his home, but he was notoriously afraid of heights, was he pushed? If so why and by whom? The story spans 40 or so years, from London to Paris to Venice and every page is captivating, engaging and keeps you reading until the very end where you are surprised by the solution to the mystery.
This is not my first Pears book, and it certainly won't be my last, but so far it's my favorite. Wonderful.
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Stone Fall A Novel Iain Pears 9780385522847 Books Reviews
If you disagree with the title of my review, you may tire of Stone's Fall before you finish it. On the other hand, if you are like me -- always in search of a good long book that will keep you enthralled to the end -- then Stone's Fall is for you.
The character who ties the four separate parts of the book together dies as a lonely widow in Paris in 1953. Attending her funeral is the man whom she hired in 1909 to find the lost child of her deceased husband and to shed some light on his demise. This husband, John Stone, was a leader of British industry and a gifted financier. It sounds like a pretty simple tale. But as in real life, a lot of people and a lot of events are not necessarily what they seem. The people in this brilliant novel live through persona they have created, persona representing their urgent needs to survive as well as their loftiest ambitions.
I don't want to say much more about the plot, because its twists and turns are what makes this story so fascinating. The central character, Elizabeth Robillard (at her death), is worth your time and attention. As are the men who surround her and whose interactions with her set the course of her life at crucial moments. The second central character, John Stone (her first husband), is also worth your time and attention. A fuller picture of him comes late in the tale, but it is worth waiting for.
Once you have begun, I urge you to read to the end. Nothing really makes complete sense until you finish. If you are like me, you will be emotionally exhausted by the end, but also deeply satisfied in a good long read.
P.S. I listened to this book on audio -- all 24 hours of it. Great way to stay awake on a long solo road trip and a lot easier on my eyes!
What can I say? Iain Pears is a genius. He has a brilliant gift for creating stories that intertwine within themselves in ingenious ways, drawing the reader ever deeper into his desperate web of human frailty and its sometimes monumental consequences. This book brings to mind the very best of Louis de Bernieres and Umberto Eco. This is a book that will keep one who appreciates a great story written in inspired prose breathlessly turning pages and unable to let it go when that last page is turned. A toast to you, Mr Pears! You have written a masterpiece.
I've given this book 4 stars because it was well written and not because I especially enjoyed it. . I skimmed some of the (to me) less interesting parts but I think other readers may find those parts worth reading. The book was narrated by different characters, none of whom were very likeable. I found Stone's story the most interesting because it tied together all the loose ends of the other narrations .
A marvelous roller coaster of a read. An somewhat of a jarring one. The first two sections vibrate with Victorian political and economic intrigue. The third and final section (Venice), however, threw me off track and I had at first to push my way through it knowing I was in the hands of a master story teller. And does it pay off in a virtuoso finale. An utterly engrossing read that merges the new technology of the torpedo with echoes of tragic tales of ancient Greece and all soaked in a page-turning narrative right out of a pulsating Victorian penny dreadful page turner.
Spotty but inventive, I found Stone's Fall about 200 pages too long. It had several gripping sections but the whole failed for me to hold together well. I found it decidedly inferior to his earlier Incident at the Fingerpost, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It must be quite difficult to write a lengthy novel, telling the story from three different character's perspectives, and Pears does a good job of making each section interesting and usually engaging, but toward the end of the third section, where we are finally to discover the source of John Stone's deathly fall from a window, I was overly anxious to get to the end of the thing. That end is shocking, but perhaps not shocking enough to warrant all those pages to get to it. Still, I did enjoy the book in the main, but wished for a shorter journey.
This is my second Pears book. His framework seems to be the same which takes away a bit of the originality in that he tells relatively the same story from several angles. I liked "Fingerpost" better as each character that speaks was a bit more interesting. Stone, ironically was the least interesting of the narrators in this book and I think Pear's struggled with making a business topic interesting. Stone is an early 20th century English industrialist and how he came to riches and power is not that interesting to me as a topic and Pears perhaps over invests in financial or business details which were fine to me but may cause others to turn the page.
As a story of tragic love and conflict I found the story very worthwhile and enjoyed how he built up his characters. The pre WWI era is not quite as well developed as a backdrop in comparison to post-Cromwell England in the Fingerpost. Overall I still completely enjoyed this novel and am only picking at some smaller points that are not as relevant as the interesting plot and the value and surprise of hearing seemingly the same story from different viewpoints.
I'm not sure there are enough adjectives to describe how good this book is..let's start with the prose! Beautiful, flowing and captivating. The story, in signature Pears style, is told through different characters and at different times in the narrative. It's still amazing to me how good he is at making each character so unique, their voices come through in the narrative in an incredibly realistic way. The Instance of the Fingerpost used much more difficult characters, but this is just as good.
The story involves the mystery of the death of a banker, a very successful banker John Stone. He supposedly has fallen from a window in his home, but he was notoriously afraid of heights, was he pushed? If so why and by whom? The story spans 40 or so years, from London to Paris to Venice and every page is captivating, engaging and keeps you reading until the very end where you are surprised by the solution to the mystery.
This is not my first Pears book, and it certainly won't be my last, but so far it's my favorite. Wonderful.
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