Fotografía de autor

Enrico Antiporda

Autor de The Band of Gypsies

5 Obras 20 Miembros 5 Reseñas

Obras de Enrico Antiporda

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Top Semi finalist, 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Kindle Edition: Published April 12th 2013

This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time!
When it was finished my first thought after reading "The End"was: "what an unbelievably, incredible, amazing story!"

Jando, a twelve-year-old child is the narrator, lying in a 'spider-hole' introducing himself as a boy-soldier - those kids "too tough to be real children, too young to be real men".

The riveting, evocative tale starts with his innocent life on his father's sugar plantation, introducing his family:

Mang Miguel Flores, his dad; Sampaguita Inday - his mom; Tanaya - his adopted little sister, with her pet pig Rosa; Monching - his missing brother; His uncle - Tio Mario: "He was a boulder no one could budge, someone one could hide behind. Today showed me that he was only human "Oso was a member of the Peasants Union and was as disagreeable as a swollen canker sore."

Jando is still discovering the world around him, describing his life from every angle: the smells of the forests and plantations, his mom's masterful cooking of traditional foods; the colors of the insects, animals, mountains, flowers, clouds; the detail of the community's dresses, believes, habits, history and languages. We are taken into the lives of decent, hardworking people living an uncomplicated life.

And abruptly his life changed when he also was confronted with the ugliness of revolution, war, politics and greed in which his family's - as well as those of many people around them's lives would forever change.
"Bad wind never blows alone, so goes the Filipino saying.

But I wasn't listening. I wanted to be alone. I was mad. Mad at Mama and Papa for delaying me, mad at Father Rufino for leaving me, mad at Tio Mario for interrupting me, mad at Leilani for cheating on Oso, mad at Oso for being a fool, mad at Tato for getting himself killed, and mad at everything else. I punched the air with my fist. It was a stupid world with stupid people living in it.

The author blended love, family, hardships, war, and unbelievable violence into a poetic tale of hope and determination.

The story is fast moving, exact, riveting. "The sun rose and fell and the days peeled away like the pages of a calendar."

Every page would shock, mesmerize, and grip the reader as a silent witness to this remarkable historical accurate, yet fictitious tale.

The reader is left breathless at the end, yet also grateful for a young boy's integrity, compassion and love for his country and his people and the price he was willing to pay to honor the people he loved and to keep his promises.

"The memories still haunt us, but they are faded now, like the pages of an old manuscript left out in the sun."

I recommend this brilliant,compassionately-written book to anyone enjoying Khaled Hosseini, Amy Tan, Abraham Verghese, Tan Twang Eng.
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Denunciada
Margitte123 | otra reseña | Sep 30, 2013 |
A few rough sentences, and scenes that end abruptly early, but very well written, well edited, and a compelling story. The prose is, for the most part, very flowing and evocative. At times, it seems almost at odds with the darkness of Jando's world. I noticed a few minor flaws, a missing word here or there, or a mechanism that was not extended evenly throughout the text (Why didn't the guerillas rename Tio Mario, as they renamed Jando, and renamed all of their own?)

There were a few aspects of the story that didn't sit well with me. The evolution of Jando's feelings towards Maya seemed to happen way too abruptly, and one of the events in the epilogue felt abrupt and out of place. I also wasn't entirely thrilled with the in-media-res beginning. Some of that's personal tastes: most of the in-media-res I read is writers forcing a connection by trying to amp up the danger in the beginning, rather than building a solid character that the reader wants to care about anyways. The rest of my dislike for that mechanism was that the placement felt awkward, the climax felt less climactic, because of its use as the opening chapter.

Those were minor nitpicks, though. The worldbuilding is not too cluttered, but it's stunning and effective. There are a lot of little nuances and details to the scents, the foods, the language, the culture, that all draw the reader in, rather than pulling away from the characters. Jando's narrative voice dissociates in places. At first, I wished there would have been more follow up to the horrors of the witnessed deaths and abuses of those close to him. There were only a few pieces of it he seemed to process, and only in a few places. Though that bothered me while I was reading it, I'd brushed it off by the end, because it made sense in the context of his overall voice. It ended up adding another level of psychological nuance, rather than being a sign of lack of follow up.

This was a hard book to put down. Its strengths far outweigh the "flaws" I found. Very well written, very gripping, and very thoughtful. Well worth the read.

(Note: I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest, non-reciprocal review. I very much appreciate this. I really enjoyed this book)
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Denunciada
Nicolas.Wilson | otra reseña | May 12, 2013 |
First, I want to state that I am amazed this book is self-published (or perhaps small press?) it is so squeaky clean, editing wise. I’ve been reading quite a few indie books and they are usually peppered with typos (lately, even some of the major press books are). Bravo.

As for the meat of the book…This book was very different than I expected it to be in many ways. I came in thinking Mystery-Thriller (as mystery is one of my favorite genres) but in my opinion it is much more Thriller-Thriller. True, there was a final moment of realization, but I felt that there was too little time with the major protagonist pursuing these answers to make this book a mystery. There was some 'mystery' that the characters had to figure out, too, but the author already supplies it to the reader, building tension, but not so much Mystery. Tension, boy, this book has a lot of that. Not a dull moment. And violence too, it holds no punches (ahem, literally).

Enrico Antiporda did something I found very unique with his perspective; he tells the story from pretty much every character’s perspective (it was almost third party omniscient). In some scenes he jumps perspectives constantly. This creates very, very believable characters, I mean: all the characters are believable, the newspaper vendor, the bad guy’s cousin, the unnamed FBI agents on surveillance—each minor character had a thoroughly thought out personality. He creates an intricate web of personalities which steer the smaller details of the plot. But, character driven? I'm not so sure. I felt the major plotline was more the driving force in this book. However, the plotline was very elaborate as well, and I might have otherwise had a hard time believing it, but with this intricate web of well conceived characters I believed the story to the end. The only downside I found to this type of narrative is at a few times I got a bit confused with who was thinking/speaking.

Also, because this book has such believable characters I felt icky when reading about hate-crimes from the aggressor’s perspective; and, yes, the first half of this book fearless faces very heavy racial issues; it was almost hard for me to read. But I was relieved to figure out that this book is completely anti-racism. And, after about halfway through the book the issues become much more major-political in my opinion. The ending was definitely more major-political scale (and exciting!).

In sum: This book is a fast paced thriller with a unique narrative style that fearlessly faces heavy racial issues.
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Denunciada
Ritastradling | Apr 15, 2013 |
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This review may contain some spoilers.

I deal with a 5 and 9 year old, and my guess would be that the reading level of this book would be for around age 8, maybe 7.

I think what I liked most about this book was the gravity of the struggles Jimbo had. Many children's books seem to be afraid to tackle difficult issues. I appreciated the way Jimbo lost his home, and then his owner, and had to deal with homelessness and the loss of a friend.
I also liked how Jimbo had a mentality that followed him throughout the book. Even though he was a simple character, he remained consistent and had his own quirks. His owner told him being clean was good, and when he runs into a wild animal one of the first things he brings up is that they smell dirty. He continues to be concerned about how clean he is throughout the book. Even when he meets the little girl, she never comments on how clean or dirty Jimbo is, but he is self-conscious about it and cleans himself up. I like that this thought process can be something that he worries about more than anyone else.

This could be a good book to teach kids why we should empathize with animals. Especially in these times we've had many cats who have been abandoned and left roaming the neighborhood, and it's good to show kids that there's nothing wrong with these animals; they've just fallen on hard times, too. It would probably be a good idea for parents to read this with the kids and discuss some of the problems Jimbo goes through.
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Denunciada
Eisah | otra reseña | Feb 12, 2013 |

Estadísticas

Obras
5
Miembros
20
Popularidad
#589,235
Valoración
4.8
Reseñas
5
ISBNs
4