A few weeks ago I only had 4 books to get caught up on. In the meantime we are several weeks down the road and the total to review is up to 7. I don't know what is worse? Having to still review all of them or the fact that since the last pot I have read 3 more books. At least I have not bought any more since then.... well... I do not think I have.... nope, pretty sure I haven't.
Just so we are clear. The tally stood at 123 not having taken off the ones I had already finished so this is where we will pick up the story.
Some of the ones I read were petty dire and some were good. I am going to try to be fair yet efficient in dispatching all of them right now.... off we go... hang on to your heads for a review frenzy like you have never seen before!
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Isabel Allende - Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
This one was a bit of a disappointment.
I did not realise when I bought it (years ago) that it was actually a children's book. That in itself should not be a bad thing. I guess Harry Potter can be seen as a children's book but I enjoyed them. Anyway....
We meet American Kate (an adventurous journalist) and her grandson Alex who have just come back form a trip where they met some tribe in some deep dark, never before discovered part of the rain forest. Grandma seems like a feisty old girl so things were looking promising. We also meet Dil Bahadur and Tensing who are obviously training/preparing from something somewhere in the Himalayas. At first it is not too clear why the two would be connected or how their stories are going to intersect. Tensing and Dil Bahadur are off trying to cure some Yetis and Kate and Alex are off to the Himalayas to find some eco friendly kingdom and possibly pick up the trail of the infamous Golder Dragon that on-one has ever seen.
There is also a Collector who likes to have everything and has issues with people who are richer than him. Then there is the Specialist who is hired by the Collector to get something special for him. Oh... and then there is some dodgy looking American called Tex Armadillo and Judit who likes flowers.
The reason the story is a disappointment is that it has a lot of underdeveloped characters/stereotypes in it and you know how it going to end and who is gong to be with who and why just about 5 pages after they are introduced. It is too predictable. Perhaps that is a consequence of it being a children's story but I am not so sure.
Some things that did not tally for me: Kate, who has travelled far and wide and has seen a lot of the world turns out to be quite intolerant of the people and behaviour she encounters in the Himalayan kingdom. If she is so well travelled why is she so impatient and rude? Alex who almost died last adventure they had now becomes an invincible Rambo type and this unstoppable saviour of (wo)mankind. Nadia, who has hardly ever left the safety of the rain forest and her family seems to be very able to adapt to her new situation of travelling far and wide with people she has only recently met. Seems to be that as long as you are routed in nature and at peace you can achieve anything... Is that the message we are aiming for here?
The characters that come out best are Tensing and Dil Bahadur. Tensing is a Buddhist monk training Dil Bahadur to prepare him for the time en he takes his place as new leader of the kingdom. the relationship between master and student is more like that of a father and son. they are thrown back onto one another and they live in balance and peace with their surroundings. The fact that in between all this there is the whole thing of the collector wanting a golden statue, the intricate way of finally obtaining the statue, that Judit turns out to be the Specialist and Tex a double crossing hat wearing dude is kind of irrelevant. It detracts from the book that it feels that Allende wanted to write but couldn't because she had to make it into a kids story.
No character is really fleshed out, no environment in really fleshed out and it feels like the book is lacking a clear focus. It was nice to read the Buddhist bits and the me philosophic parts but it does not make up for the ramblings in other areas.
Title: Kingdom of the Golden Dragon
Author: Isabel Allende
437 pages
Harper Perennial
ISBN nr 0-00-717748-8
Books to be read: 122
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