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The Dark Side of Love Introduction of the ebook: The Dark Side of Love
Đánh giá : 4.11 /5 (sao)
An international bestseller available in English for the first time,a story of forbidden love set against the background of Arabic culture and endless feuds between clans
A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul s Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man s mysterious widow, the Secret Servi An international bestseller available in English for the first time,a story of forbidden love set against the background of Arabic culture and endless feuds between clans
A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul s Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man s mysterious widow, the Secret Service takes the case away from him. Barudi continues to investigate clandestinely and discovers the murderer s motive: it is a blood feud between the Mushtak and Shahin clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century. And, linked to it, a love story that can have no happy ending, for reconciliation has no place within the old tribal structures.
Rafik Schami s dazzling novel spans a century of Syrian history in which politics and religions continue to torment an entire people. Simultaneously, his poetic stories from three generations tell of the courage of lovers who risk death sooner than deny their passions. He has also written a heartfelt tribute to his hometown Damascus and a great and moving hymn to the power of love …more
Review ebook The Dark Side of Love
I am so very frustrated with this book! The violence is repetitive. The sex is disturbingly portrayed, and it is repetitive too. There is no beauty in any love relationship. Beauty….I thought I would glimpse the beauty of the Syrian landscape. No! I thought I would be drawn into learning about Syrian history and culture. I thought I would get a feel for Damascus. All of this is lacking.
There is no emotional tie between the reader and the numerous characters. You meet a character and he is mar I am so very frustrated with this book! The violence is repetitive. The sex is disturbingly portrayed, and it is repetitive too. There is no beauty in any love relationship. Beauty….I thought I would glimpse the beauty of the Syrian landscape. No! I thought I would be drawn into learning about Syrian history and culture. I thought I would get a feel for Damascus. All of this is lacking.
There is no emotional tie between the reader and the numerous characters. You meet a character and he is married and has six children and then is killed or dies of an illness. All within three pages. Then the next character is delivered to you in the next two pages, and so on and so on. Yes, I am exaggerating a teeny bit, but not much. I need a feeling of attachment to at least one or two characters. I feel nothing for any one of them. Why? There are too many, there is zero dialog and you are told rather than having been shown. The classical failure of poorly written books.
Have I learned interesting facts of history? No! I have been told in a few short sentences about the conniving behavior and bribery of those in power, but there is no continuity to the historical facts. There is little substance to show me how the people were affected by life under these leaders. They merely appear and disappear.
This book is poorly written. There is not one beautiful or thought provoking line. You learn nothing, neither about human behavior, history, Damascus nor Syria. You couldn’t care less about any of the characters. There is no humor. It is inexcusable that more than 200 pages is necessary for a book to become interesting or the slightest engaging, so yes, I am dumping this book.
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Through page 175:
I hope this improves. There are two Syrian families that have a blood feud. If you can kill someone in the other family, you do it! Guess what happens then? A girl from one family and a guy from the other feuding family fall in love. Surprising? The biggest problem is that I have met about fifty people from these two families. (Thank God there are two complete family trees in the front of the book.) Too many characters to feel a thing for any one of them, let alone keep their names straight! Yes, there is murder and fornication and then another murder and more fornication. Multiply that by three or four. None of the characters mean anything at all to me so I couldn’t care less….. I hope this improves. I have heard the book has a slow start. …more
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