Audiobook Review!

Seeing as I'm nearly finished with "The Paris Wife", a review of "The Thousand Autmns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell is due.

Why did I choose this book?  Well, it all has to do with Franklin Roosevelt, the man I've become a huge historical fangirl for.  After listening to everything I could put my hands on about him, the time had come to go back to something in the historical fiction genre.  Jacob de Zoet was already in my Audible library and  - this is how my mind works - Franklin Roosevelt's ancestors made their big bucks in the far east trade.  Oh yes, then there was that whole business between Franklin and the Japanese.  So even though it was a stretch and Jacob de Zoet is fiction, I was somehow able to extend my Franklin Roosevelt reading path through it.  What can I say? It's my path, I can take it were I need it to go.

What was this about?  Without giving too much away, it was about true love, corruption and adventure in Japan during the time of the British and Dutch East Indies Companies.

What was my favorite scene?  Orito's escape from the shrine.  It was so compelling I walked an extra mile just so I could finish listening to it.

Who was my favorite character?  Believe it or not, I think it was Captain Penn Halligan.  While he doesn't enter the story until a relatively late point, his character and role in it is much more highly developed than some of the others.  I felt a certain sympathy for his position that was missing for Jacob and Orito.

Would I listen to this again?  On an extended car trip, yes, because it's a story we'd all be interested in hearing.