Sylvia

Sylvia by Bryce Courtenay


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Up until the end, I was going to rate this 3 stars, however, I felt the ending was rushed and abrupt. The last third of the book was drawn out, but I don't think the story was resolved.

I also didn't like the narration. The story is set in Germany and I guess that gave the narrator permission to pronounce every word beginning with W as if it began with V. That would be fine if the narrator was German, but she clearly was American and knew how to pronounce W's. She also attempted to give characters accents to help distinguish them from another, but I find accents unnecessary and annoying.

Sylvia explores multiple aspects of the Catholic Church--from corruptness to celibacy. I've been struggling with my faith for awhile now, and Courtenay hit many of the aspects of the Catholic Church with which I'm struggling. While I know/hope that bishops aren't appointed by the family in which they were born or how much money they could pay the Vatican, but the hierarchy is still there. There are more aspects exposed, but my religious struggles are not the point of this review.

Overall, I don't think I'd recommend this book.

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