I've just recently discovered some free time since the end of July until the beginning of November and had been hitting the BOOKSALE at SM North EDSA lately. I started with 5 books for under P200. I missed reading so much that I have returned to restock and have since maintained at least three unread books in my bookshelf. I would be posting my reviews here as well as on my Goodreads account.
La Grande Therese:
The Greatest Scandal of the Century
by
Hilary Spurling
It's the tale of Therese Humbert's great deception at the turn of the century. It may have surprised a lot of the readers that it's not a novel. The book's narrative is a true blue biography. I didn't mind that at all as I truly enjoy biographies at its own right. This book is a bit on the short side, similar to a novella. And, that was the book's biggest disappointment.
From the get go, we both learn and love Therese Humbert. She has one of the must humblest beginnings as the daughter of bastards. We learn that she lived in poverty with nothing but her great imagination and storytelling prowess as assets. When I ventured into this book, I was completely unaware of who she was and what this great scandal was about. In fact, I didn't really care about in the long run. I was more interested on how Therese managed to do it and keep it up.
It's short and enjoyable.
The short comings: it's a cross between a research paper and a literary piece. As a research paper it's too dramatic. As a literary piece, it's not dramatic enough. I understand how hard it is to transform a research paper into something that will appeal to a larger audience. Since I am comfortable reading both, I would have enjoyed the book more if it had chosen either one and was edited accordingly.
Still, as other reviews had mentioned, the story is so riveting that I'd love for it to be turned into a movie!
***
La Grande Therese:
The Greatest Scandal of the Century
by
Hilary Spurling
My Rating: 3 stars!
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.10 stars!
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