The Strange Journey of Mr. Daldry (2011)

An enjoyable read that didn’t quite live up to its potential. The novel starts strong with an interesting premise and two interesting characters but I felt it lagged in the middle and rushed the end (what happened to Anton and the trumpet). Ultimately the mystery that Alice is unravelling was relatively predictable.

I actually had no idea this book was a translation until I got to the end of the book (obviously wasn’t paying enough attention to the front cover) and with that in mind I thought the prose was quite lovely a times. Particularly the descriptions of scents and how they informed the way Alice interacted with the world around her.

In saying that, I found the descriptions of Turkey to be lacklustre. The author seemed to fall back on listing names, of what I can only presume,are places in Istanbul instead of actually describing those places. As someone who has never been to Turkey I couldn’t visualised as well as I would have liked.

A big sticking point for me is also the basic information we are given about the two primary characters, Alice and Daldry. I realised when I finished the book that I couldn’t picture the characters at all. I couldn’t think of we’d ever been given a physical description. We also don’t find out how old Alice is until 130 pages in (39, quite a bit older than I was imagining). I don’t believe we are ever told Daldry’s age. As he was first introduced as the crabby neighbour I spend the first few chapters thinking he was an older man. I just have to assume he is of a similar age to Alice.
( )

Via Prime Reading ( )

This book didn't touch me as I expected it to do.
Unfortunately, even though I read it to the end, I was left with no definite impression of pleasure. ( )

Begin is redelijk, tot op op driekwart: dan krijg ik moeite mijn aandacht erbij te houden: laag tempo, weinig verrassend, geen spanning. Het verhaal lijkt verteld... ik ben al lang niet meer geïnteresseerd in de afloop.
De roman is goed geschreven, makkelijke taal, lekker lopend; ik hoef geen moeilijke woorden op te zoeken.
Maar het genre blijkt niet het mijne, teveel een damesromannetje... ( )

Auf der Suche nach ihrem Liebesglück reist Alice nach Istanbul. Nebst der Erweiterung ihres Wissens für die Parfumherstellung, lernt sie ihre wahre Lebensgeschichte kennen. Spannend aufgebaut, Istanbul nimmt Formen, Farben und Geschmack beim Hören an.