Bonita Avenue

Lovely twisty tale of family fun and frolics. I was surprised to see other readers found it hard to get going - I zipped through it with occasional pauses to tell friends how good it was. None of the characters are very wholesome but that's what makes it so good.

A very strong start but the second half of the book doesn't really live up to it.

Very poor. Spare yourselves the effort

Very pleased with product

Great writing. Gripping book

Peter Buwalda’s debut novel was published to widespread acclaim in his native Holland and has now made a similar impact worldwide. It is a sprawling, exuberant, wild ride of a novel, with twists and turns and a cast of eccentric characters, multi-layered and original. It’s the story of a dysfunctional family par excellence, headed by patriarch Siem Sigerius, a larger than life mathematical genius, judo champion, university professor and charismatic family man. When Aaron falls for Siem’s step-daughter Joni and is introduced to the family, he immediately falls under Siem’s spell and a friendship develops between them. But what starts so promisingly soon degenerates into chaos as events conspire to break down everything that once seemed so successful and secure. Paranoia, madness, the fragmentation of the family and the individual members’ psyches, secrets, lies and a seemingly unbridgeable generational divide – all these dark and disturbing elements could have made this a gripping and moving tale of a family’s fall from grace. But for me this novel just doesn’t hang together. Buwalda tackles far too many weighty themes, from internet pornography to suicide, without saying anything very meaningful about any of them. His characters are neither likeable nor sympathetic, and Siem Sigeruis, on whom the novel largely focusses, is an over-the-top caricature, obsessed as he is with sex and seemingly incapable of forging meaningful relationships. Buwalda does have an eye for the arresting detail, a facility for amusing set-pieces, and an acute awareness of contemporary issues, but tries to pack in too much. He just about manages to keep control of his narrative as the pace quickens and the novel hurtles towards its climax, but by that time I had lost interest in the whole sorry bunch of them. There’s remarkably little depth to this book, in spite of its exuberance and verve, which go some way to disguise the fact, and in the end it all amounts to very little. Much noise but no substance. Disappointing.

This is one of the best books I have read, reminded me of Donna tarts a secret history in some ways, either way I enjoyed it very much

This book was a wild ride with interesting, well-developed if unlikable characters and a plot that kept me rolling through its 500+ pages. A roller coaster ride of a read!

Sehr spannend

The novel is too long-winded. It's characters are interesting but unlovable. It's hard to connect with any one of them emotionally. It was hard to guess where the plot was going to go which is a good thing. I liked the way it moved around from country to country. Horrific ending and totally unexpected..

I, basically, liked the story, which to say is not the best compliment - I think the author would/will hate hearing this, but I thought it was over written - if there is such a thing - too many characters/names to follow - a bit difficult to know who I was following at times - might be because of the foreign names, which I am not familiar with - might prove to be a better story for a movie - I did loose track of time, as well as the characters because of the style of writing - I was, more than once, going to just put it down and forget about it, but for whatever the reason, I did not - I was, however, happy with my decision because I did enjoy the ending - it almost made up for the parts I disliked.

Sometimes, even the best of writing from non-english authors suffers in the translation. Unfortunately, this book meets the same fate. While the story line sounds great, the translation just doesn't track, which is really a shame. Written in Holland in 2010, it's the story of a family filled with dysfunction, strife and sex. It just lost it in the translation.