Genre: contemporary fiction. \u2b50\ufe0fStars from Goodreads: 4.26.\u00a0\u2b50\ufe0fStars from me: 5.<\/p>\n
Some books are like mystical creatures. I don\u2019t know the exact numbers but they are rare. Maybe they are even a disappearing kind, although I hope not.<\/p>\n
These books make you slow down and think, but not in a boring, obligatory way. You can fly through the book if you want to, but you will be robbing yourself. Alternatively, you can slow down, pay attention to each phrase, savour it and see it unwrap all the treasures it\u2019s been saving for you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how good Virgil Wander<\/em><\/a> is.<\/p>\n I like how even the name of the book implies some mythology and unusual characters although the book doesn\u2019t sound pompous or overloading. It is deep, but in a very accessible, reader-friendly way.<\/p>\n Virgil Wander<\/em> is about many different characters inhabiting a small town. Most of them are loveable, not only because they are special but also because of the things they do and say. There\u2019s an old guy who flies kites. There\u2019s a younger man who plunged his car into cold waters. There\u2019s a sheriff whose cat walks with him everywhere like a dog. There\u2019s also a creepy guy who\u2019s charming and polite, but who scared the life out of me every time he appeared in a scene. I do not know how Leif Enger<\/a>, the author, managed to achieve this effect. Virgil Wander<\/em> is one of those books I cannot dismantle to see how it\u2019s done, I can only enjoy it.<\/p>\n The book is really funny but not in a circus way. Its humor is genuine, clever and heartwarming.<\/p>\n I loved the book so much I started tweeting about it straight away. I underlined so many phrases, and now I can return and admire them again. Just look at some of them:<\/p>\n \u201cHe had the heartening bulk of the aging athlete defeated by pastry\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cmy memories of her are more tender than specific\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe had a close, curious way of observing people. You could mistake it for admiration.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNothing seemed like the right thing to say, so that\u2019s what I said for a while.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Aren\u2019t these pure treasures? There\u2019s a whole book of them!<\/p>\n Some moments left me wondering, but not in an annoying open-ending kind of way. The book comes as a package: the book itself and all the thoughts that you will be having after you finish it. I can\u2019t wait till 2nd October when Virgil Wander<\/em><\/a> will be out so that you can read it and we can talk about it. I strongly recommend you do read it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m very thankful to Leif Enger for this wonderful book, and to the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some books are like mystical creatures. I don\u2019t know the exact numbers but they are rare. Maybe they are even a disappearing kind, although I hope not. Here’s my review of a book like this. Continue reading Virgil Wander by Leif Enger<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[125,140,283,348,406,486,657,658,659,660],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}