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A review by sterlingisreading
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Good story, lovable characters, beautiful prose. The setting is so lush; the author really takes you there. The book begins with an arranged marriage between a 12 year old girl and 40 year old widower; you might think to yourself, “Oh, I’ve heard this song before…” but trust me, you haven’t. The whole family of Parambil is richly layered and tenderly written.
However, I do have some bones to pick with it: I could’ve done without Digby. I liked him at first, but then his chapters felt like an afterthought, wedged into a story that was moving with such grace and fluidity. I feel like I’d go 200 pages without him and then there he is, briefly, almost entirely disconnected from anything else going on in the novel. His chapters derailed the narrative for me and I didn’t like the ending 🤷🏼♀️ but still! Wonderful book.
One more thing, and it’s a pretty obvious, standard opinion. You’ll either agree with me on this or decide I’m being a snotty little brat: Celebrity book club picks… When I do get around to reading them, which isn’t that often, I generally find them comforting, well-composed, with just enough style to keep me reading, but not enough to stop me in my tracks or really stick with me. There’s an inherent “safeness” to them that I don’t like, but it’s understandable given that they earn such massive mainstream success. (I realize it’s my own fault for picking them up in the first place.) So, yeah even though I thought this book was really wonderful, I ultimately came away from it feeling slightly unsatisfied. The fact that this took an entire week to finish means something, at least for me. When I’m absolutely enthralled with a book, I shoot up out of bed in the morning, get everything done that needs to be done, so I can clear out my whole day because I’m so excited to get back into reading. I enjoyed this a lot, but I wasn’t laying awake at night, trying to decide if I should sneak out of bed so I could read just a littttttttle bit more. And that’s what I want from my books. And I’m lucky that I’m able to find that fervor quite frequently. It just wasn’t here.
However, I do have some bones to pick with it: I could’ve done without Digby. I liked him at first, but then his chapters felt like an afterthought, wedged into a story that was moving with such grace and fluidity. I feel like I’d go 200 pages without him and then there he is, briefly, almost entirely disconnected from anything else going on in the novel. His chapters derailed the narrative for me and I didn’t like the ending 🤷🏼♀️ but still! Wonderful book.
One more thing, and it’s a pretty obvious, standard opinion. You’ll either agree with me on this or decide I’m being a snotty little brat: Celebrity book club picks… When I do get around to reading them, which isn’t that often, I generally find them comforting, well-composed, with just enough style to keep me reading, but not enough to stop me in my tracks or really stick with me. There’s an inherent “safeness” to them that I don’t like, but it’s understandable given that they earn such massive mainstream success. (I realize it’s my own fault for picking them up in the first place.) So, yeah even though I thought this book was really wonderful, I ultimately came away from it feeling slightly unsatisfied. The fact that this took an entire week to finish means something, at least for me. When I’m absolutely enthralled with a book, I shoot up out of bed in the morning, get everything done that needs to be done, so I can clear out my whole day because I’m so excited to get back into reading. I enjoyed this a lot, but I wasn’t laying awake at night, trying to decide if I should sneak out of bed so I could read just a littttttttle bit more. And that’s what I want from my books. And I’m lucky that I’m able to find that fervor quite frequently. It just wasn’t here.