There is a reason that gems are framed with metals: to accentuate their beauty and hold them in place. The Jade Cat by Suzanne Brogger though is like a series of gems with no frames at all. There are fascinating sentences, even paragraphs. But they were lost in a see of actions and connections. The value of the gems, at least in my eyes, was lost as the good segments were overshadowed by the lack of focus. It felt like we meet a new character or location on every single page. I think this was the first time I got sensory overload from a book.
I regret the above, because the book sounded exciting. I would have loved to follow a three or more generations of a Jewish Danish family around the world thoughout a long 20th century. But for me they were lost in the cavalcade.
I am grateful for having received an ARC. But I have to mention two physical characteristics of the book that hopefully will be corrected by the time of the final version. First of all the font was hard to read. The bulging letters tired my eyes fast and made it hard to follow the lines. Second, there were blank pages in the book with the text missing (61/62, 333/334). I know I was reading an “uncorrected proof” so these are not criticism for the final product.