Showing posts with label jessie burton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jessie burton. Show all posts

Monday, February 9, 2015

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Eccos; 2014. 400 pages. Hardcover.


This book disappointed me. Now don’t get me wrong, it was still entertaining – but, sadly, disappointing. It was imaginative, but flighty. I couldn’t put it down, yet at times I wanted to do nothing but that. I think I had my hopes too high for this book. I had heard so much, and I truly believe it was simply too over-hyped.

The novel starts off with a young girl of 18, Petronella, – or Nella, as she prefers to be called – and her arrival in Amsterdam to begin her new life married Johannes, a merchant trader. This presented the first problem for me: her age. Although I know how mature women can be at the age of eighteen, Nella simply seemed too mature. She had the airs of a woman quite a few years her senior, and it simply seemed a bit too much. She did have quite a lot of naiveties, which was more realistic, but it didn’t quite match up to her supposed age. Her sophistication seemed to go beyond her years, especially for having grown in a rather average setting before moving to Amsterdam.

But alas, moving on. I truly enjoyed Burton’s writing. She has a wonderful grasp on using language to capture emotions and set up a scene. While I didn't necessarily enjoy the way in which she always used this language, which I will get to momentarily, I really do think Burton is a wonderful wordsmith, who truly is a natural and gifted writer. I immensely enjoyed her descriptions and language during moments of crises; it was a very simplistic style, yet it conveyed so much.
However, this brings me to my second issue: confusion. Although I loved the way in which Burton wrote and styled her story, I found it to be a bit confusing at times as far as plot was concerned. I found myself unsure of what was happening at times, largely due to the fact that her writing style does not always provide enough description or information about a scene or event that is occurring. Similarly, her writing style is one that leaves a lot up to the reader to deduce, and sometimes it is not as obvious as one would think.

Now, the characters. It was a fun cast of characters, each with their own extremely distinct personalities. However, I must say that they tended to be somewhat clichéd. Besides Nella and Johannes' sister, Marin, they weren't overly multi-dimensional or dynamic, as we did not see many sides to some of them. I suppose many people wouldn't see this as a flaw, but character development can truly make or break a novel, and this novel was rather lacking. 

Also, there is one aspect of the book that is left unexplained. And I must say, it kills me a little bit. There are times when authors can perfectly execute an “unexplained” or “open to interpretation” ending, but this was not quite one of them.



Overall, I would recommend this book, but not to someone who is overly picky about their books. It is an enjoyable read, and definitely interesting. As annoyed as I would become with this book at times, I found myself unable to put it down; I just had to know what would keep happening to this unfortunate group of people!