Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Book review- Peeling Oranges by author James Lawless



Painted in descriptive language and spoken with a rich poetic voice, Peeling Oranges offers a storyline that is smooth, realistic, romantic and full of drama and mystery. The pages are filled with an honest style of writing which is accompanied by important historic events that make the read even more interesting and engaging.

The interactions between the characters are presented in a creative yet down-to-earth way. It is so easy to become emotionally involved with Derek, the main protagonist of the story who has to cope with a myriad of obstacles over the course of his search for two most desirable things in life: the ultimate truth and love. The author accurately describes this journey as “a higher truth, a poetic truth, a verisimilitude which strips away the bare facts which sometime can overpower us and blind us in our vision.” On his path to discovery Derek brings to light his family secrets and at the same time peels the layers of a Spanish and Irish turbulent history. He also needs to cross the long bridge from a beautiful ideology to an unwanted realization—is Sinéad, the love of his life, a woman he really wants and trusts? After all, can he be close to anyone or believe in anything? Yet nothing but diaries from the past have answers to his concerns and time-consuming doubts.

What especially amazed me was the re-readability of this story - when I looked back at a few chapters I found additional meaning from author’s daring and symbolic style. This book has everything: drama, suspense, action, tragedy, romance, and much more. I highly recommend it.