Adventure and history set against opera music. Wonderful. Ending a bit odd. ( )

Am at about chapter 5 - so far very absorbing!!
(UPDATE: I really liked this book - very different from most novels I've read recently) ( )

Ammetto che l'idea di base sia piuttosto interessante: non originale (è praticamente il concetto de "Il profumo" ma con l'udito invece dell'olfatto), ma comunque in grado di suscitare curiosità nel lettore; ammetto anche che l'ambientazione sia suggestiva: prima un coro di monaci fra le alpi svizzere, poi Vienna nel suo periodo di massimo splendore musicale, agli albori del classicismo viennese. Mi spingo perfino a dire che la trama è (quasi sempre) avvincente e lo stile scorrevole, anche se non particolarmente brillante.
Il problema è che nel complesso questo libro non funziona. Non è brutto, ma qualcosa non si incastra a dovere.
E' uno di quei classici casi in cui non si capisce dove voglia andare a parare: troppo stravagante per essere storico, ma troppo poco per essere fantasy. Un po' avventura, un po' romance, insomma c'è di tutto in questo romanzo senza che venga mai approfondito niente.
I personaggi sono stereotipati e non hanno la minima verosimiglianza storica, agiscono e pensano come uomini dei nostri tempi. Il protagonista poi è particolarmente insulso, sempre spaesato e in balia degli eventi: caratteristiche che ispirano tenerezza nella prima parte in cui è bambino, ma solo irritazione una volta cresciuto; ed effettivamente l'inizio è la parte più riuscita, proseguendo la trama perde mordente.
Insomma è un libro che in fondo non mi pento di aver letto, ma che non consiglierei a nessuno. ( )

I've had this one for a while and never heard the call to read it until I needed to read a book of historical fiction set before 1900 for my Book Riot Harder Challenge and (gasp!) I had managed to make it through 9 months of this year without having done that yet. Or if I did it was for another category of the challenge. How fortunate I hadn't. This is truly a lovely book, unusual in its topic IMHO, and lyric in its prose with sound becoming something that is so very corporeal, experienced in every cell of of the body. It is a retelling of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a cast of characters that is classic, and themes that resonate through to modern day. Not to be missed. ( )

When I look at my copy of The Bells sitting in front of me, I cannot believe it lies there immobile and lifeless. The sounds and music within its pages should make the book throb and vibrate across the table. During the time I spent entranced with this story, my body rang like the bells within its pages.
The Bells is a fictional autobiography, a letter written by a castrati father to his son, explaining how their relationship came to be. Moses Froben is born in a remote Swiss village to a deaf-mute woman who finds her one great pleasure (apart from her love for her son) in the vibrations she feels ringing the massive bells in her village's church. These bells are so loud that the villagers clamp their hands to their ears, but the sound has a different effect on Moses, giving him an almost magical ability to hear and dissect sounds, near and far. When the village priest (his father) discovers that Moses is not deaf like his mother, the man attempts to drown Moses in a river. Moses is rescued by traveling monks, Nicolai and Remus, and taken to the monastery at St. Gall. Here his angelic voice is discovered by the choir master and preserved for all time by a horrible act of castration.
Surprisingly, The Bells is a love story, for Moses falls in love with a woman who is forbidden to him. The Bells is also a mystery—for how can Moses, a castrati, a musico, be the father of the recipient of this novel-length letter? Finally, The Bells is music. Harvell's magical prose gives sound to Moses' life: the bells, the arias, and the uneven breath of true love. ( )