Buy this book, but not the Norton version !
Rating:
5 / 5
What MORON at Norton decided that they should give away the whole plot on the book's back side ?! As if it wasn't enough to give away the beginning, the middle and the end of the story on the book's back side, they have made certain to take away any thrill the reader might get by giving away the outcome of the story also on the front page. What was wrong with the first edition ? The front page illustration was also a lot better on the first edition. Luckily I had already read this book, I just ordered it for a friend, thus I could warn him about the idiot cover. When it comes to the content of the book, it's brilliant, -to a degree where you end up ordering it from Amazon if you can't find your old copy, in order to lend it to someone who has just praised "Master and Commander".
One of the best books I've ever read
Rating:
5 / 5
There is little I can add to what many other insightful readers have already said. Wonderful writing. Many deep and subtle insights and observations about human nature. I finished it more than a month ago, and the story, the characters, the quality of the writing, and the thoughts and feelings I had as I read it have been with me ever since. A great reading experience.
The brass button
Rating:
5 / 5
Make no mistake about it, reading Sacred Hunger is a significant undertaking -- both in terms of the impact this complex and epic story will have on you and because of the time and concentration it will take to navigate the book's more than 600 pages. That significance is something to savor.I will avoid the clich� of saying that the story "has it all," but Sacred Hunger does come close to that. There's the adventure of a band of men moving between three continents and pushed until they snapped and yet optimistically deciding to create what they saw as a kind of utopia, there is an examination of the cruelty that humans are capable of inflicting on each other, the story includes an accurate lesson in a period of history and its economics and geography, a touching love story, a metaphor for modern times. Curiously, the pages also include the story of a small brass button. I still haven't decided what the button represents, but I did note that it is the only thing in the story that manages to survive all the kinds of hell the length of the story includes, changing hands at least six times between the beginning of the book and its final pages and yet it ends up no worse off. The title of this volume refers to its grandest theme, the desire that drives men to extreme action. It is in this aspect that the book shines brightest, as the term is defined differently but compellingly for each of the main characters, especially the two main characters, cousins Erasmus Kemp and Matthew Paris. There is a sacred hunger in almost all of the less central characters as well, in Michael Sullivan (the fiddle player who longed to be treated like a man ... and only person to own the brass button twice), in Billy Blair (who was robbed of his money and who ended up a judge), in Saul Thurso (the captain who never failed his owners), even in many of the slaves and the other seamen forced into service, and in the soldiers camped in Florida and Africa. Therein lies one of the potential stumbling blocks for readers of Sacred Hunger: it includes a great many characters and to really understand the book it is imperative to remember who came from where and which character has a problem with or a debt to whom. Most of the crew is introduced starting with chapter 12, and I found myself referring back to that part of the book often to remember the particulars of certain figures. Later, it is also important to remember the characteristics of different African tribes involved in the story. There are few female characters in the book, and those who do appear can seem unconvincing compared to the complex representations of many of the men. Similarly, I found myself wishing I knew much more about the artist and philosopher Delblanc, who comes into the story late but who plays an absolutely key role. If I have a criticism of the book it is the way Delblanc is developed. But I use the conditional on that point because I am not sure if I do indeed have a criticism of the book. It is easy to seek out minor discrepancies or personal critiques in a volume of this size and scope, but the fact remains that sacred Hunger is a breathtaking story, the best I've read in some time.
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