. For those of you who don't know me, I hated Moby Dick so much that I did a spoof of it for my 12th grade AP English project. To compare 4321 to Moby Dick is NOT a good thing.I had such high hopes for this one. Truly, I did. Remember, it was one of my "anticipated releases" not that long ago. I was SO wrong about it. A case of the description really selling a subpar book.
This is the description that sold me on this book:
"Nearly two weeks early, on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Family fortunes diverge. Athletic skills and sex lives and friendships and intellectual passions contrast. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other. Meanwhile, readers will take in each Ferguson’s pleasures and ache from each Ferguson’s pains, as the mortal plot of each Ferguson’s life rushes on."
WHAT!?! A man's life splits off into four different realities? Like Fringe or Sliding Doors
?! Awesome! I was like, this book is for me! Oh, how wrong I was.4321 started off pleasantly enough, a neat little history on the family from the immigrant grandparents to the parents and finally landing on Ferguson. Interesting family dynamics paired with a solid narration held my interest for a while but then it all went to crap as the chapters dragged on and on and on with the most mundane details being expounded upon until I couldn't focus on the page any longer.
People, this book is over 800 pages. OVER 800 PAGES!!! I still love the premise. I liked some of the characters. Hell, I enjoyed the stories but it was so overdone that I wanted to hurl the book across the room. And, don't even get me started on Ferguson 2 because that was enough to make me just stop reading. I won't go into detail because *spoilers* just know that if you read this and make it that far you will likely want to scream a little. I think my neighbors think I'm nuts because I absolutely dropped the book on my couch at that point and walked out in the backyard to shout a little of my annoyance out.
Honestly, I skimmed through the vast majority of this book because it was that ridiculously long and boring. It actually made intriguing parts of history into boring, tedious drivel. Have I made my point about how I feel about this book? I don't know. I could probably go on but I feel like I've given it more than enough bad promo for a while. If you're interested in checking it out, the links I've added here are for the Amazon purchase pages and, as usual, you won't be charged extra but I would get a bit back to help keep these awesome reviews coming your way!
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