Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Themes: Regret
Quotes: From The Name of the Wind: "Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite."
From The Slow Regard of Silent Things: “It was wise enough to know itself, and brave enough to BE itself, and wild enough to change itself while somehow staying altogether true.”
Reading/Listening Time: The Name of the Wind: 27 hours, 56 mins & The Slow Regard of Silent things: 3 hours, 39 minutes
Review:
These two books are stories that I value more for the characters the present then the world they create.
The first book has this biographer guy going to find this reclusive legendary dude who apparently did all of these epic things when he was younger. He eventually finds him and convinces him to tell his story, but because the legendary dude (Kvothe) is really poetical he wants to tell it in his own way.
He's like "Well, you better get your pen ready cuz this is gonna take THREE DAYS for me to get through..."
The rest of the entire book is Day 1 of him telling his story...
Which, IDK...I think it actually takes LONGER than 24 hours from that point to the end of the book on audio so Kote/Kvothe, as long winded as he was, must have been talking REALLY fast.
Honestly, though, this book was a resounding success for me. It reminded me a lot of the people I've met and taken care of as a nurse. A lot of them have lived really interesting lives and done things they're proud of, and things they're not proud of. And because in the hospital or nursing home, sometimes you meet these people and they're in crisis, or at the end of their lives, they want to share it with you. And it's a truely precious thing! Even if you have NOTHING in common with that person...you can build that connection and you carry it with you for the rest of your life.
That's what this book captured so perfectly to me. Now, I don't greatly admire Kvothe as a heroic figure (I don't even accept him as a particularly reliable narrator) but there is a place in my heart for him because he makes me think of the individuality of each person I've ever met (even the people I don't like very much, because I don't think I'd have liked young!Kvothe very much).
The second book I read in this series is kind of a spinnoff. It's not Day 2 of Kvothe's journey, it deals with a completely different character who Kvothe met while he was in school. It's written in a very different style from the first book, and it's a lot shorter because it's just this snapshot in the life of this kind of severely autistic, homeless woman.
A lot of people didn't like it because it doesn't really advance the plot of the series a whole lot, but for me it had what attracts me to this world so much, which is the really interesting characters. Even as limited as Auri is in her perspective and the ways she can interact with the world, even in the ways she can think...there's a beautiful humanity to her. Her world is small, and she spends most of her time alone, but her life is so incredibly full. of wonder and beauty and tragedy...
It's amazing, quite honestly.
Overall the thing I appreciate most about Mr Rothfuss' writing his how he examines brokenness in people, and the idea that "broken" does not mean "ruined". You can still be the best version of yourself even if you're disabled and feel like you can't achieve the same things as other people can, or you feel like you've failed in some way in your life. It's a really bittersweet message, and it resonated with me very strongly.
Rating: 5/5 For The Name of the Wind, 4/5 for The Slow Regard of Silent Things
No comments:
Post a Comment