Mitch Cullin

An incredible slice of life. I love the gritty realism of the setting and characters, and the authentically childlike fantasies and rationale of Jeliza-Rose. The whole story takes place after she has already arrived in What Rocks, and presumably ends when she leaves with the nice woman from the train accident. I would almost call this one of my favourite books, but there are some things I would change if I could.

While I love how we get inside Jeliza-Rose's head and become a young child again, the writing vocabulary took me out of the fantasy at first. Her speaking vocabulary is spot on, just as a kid her age would speak, and although the internal dialog in spirit is also spot on, the words and phrases themselves are far beyond what it should be. If this is a reflection on her childhood as an adult, that would make sense, but that is never indicated.
My second issue is the ending. It's so abrupt, and we never know what happens to her Captain, or what might be waiting for Jeliza-Rose after she leaves What Rocks. Granted many events in real life are like this, we often lose people and have no idea what happens to them after we have moved on from them. Still, I wish there had been some hints. It left me wanting more!… (mer)

Corre el año 1947 y Holmes, de 93 años y ya retirado, vive en una lejana granja en Sussex, donde sus recuerdos e intelecto comienzan a ir a la deriva. Vive con un ama de llaves y su joven hijo, Roger, cuyo comportamiento paciente y respetuoso despierta el afecto paternal de Holmes. La rutinaria vida de Holmes se limita al cuidado de su colmena, a la escritura de su diario y a la lidia con la disminución de la capacidad de su afilada mente, hasta que Roger se tropieza con un caso desconocido hasta el momento. Se trata de la señorita Keller, el antiguo objeto del profundo amor de Holmes. Holmes es famoso por su capacidad de deducción. Su mundo se compone de evidencias puras y hechos incontestables, de observaciones y conclusiones sin mancillar por sentimientos personales.… (mer)