Review: Silk by Alessandro Baricco

Silk is a novella about obsession, longing, and love. It’s the 1860’s and Herve Joncour, a married French merchant of silkworms, goes to Japan several times for eggs. While there, he meets a young concubine who is not Japanese but cannot communicate in anything except Japanese. Joncour becomes obsessed; meanwhile, his wife back home waits patiently for him during every trip he takes. Will either of them get what they long for?

Sigh. This was a well-written novella; but again, it was just too graphic in parts for my tastes. I have a difficult time believing that one of the female characters would write a letter such as the one found in this book, but who knows. On a positive note, this is my first book completed for the 1% Well-Read Challenge, so I guess that means I’m 0.1% well-read.

1996, 91 pp.
Rating:

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Popularity: 84% [?]

May 4, 2008

'b' authors, 's' titles, 0-149, 1990's, 3.5 stars, italian, japan

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Comment by Lenore on May 14, 2008 @ 10:22 am

This is on my challenge list. So let’s see!

Comment by Susan Elliott on June 9, 2008 @ 5:39 am

Thanks for the review — I’m adding it to the list of want to reads…

Pingback by 101 Books in 1001 Days on June 16, 2008 @ 9:44 pm

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Pingback by THEMED READING CHALLENGE - Links to May/June Reviews on July 14, 2008 @ 12:26 pm

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