A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne is an adult fiction novel.
Maurice Swift is ambitions. He’s handsome, a smooth talker and hungry for success. He is determined to become a prestigious author… at any cost. There is just one problem, he can’t think of anything good to write. But that isn’t a problem for Maurice because one can always find a story somewhere, right?
And so begins a decades long story of a man who is willing to do literally anything to get ahead. But will gaining fame be enough or will he do the unspeakable to stay on top?
This one made it on to my TBR list and I’d kept putting a hold on the e-audio book and then not checking it out. Well last week, I finally did. Andddd I’m not sure about it. At first, I wasn’t sure where the story was going or how we were going to have a whole book from a narrator whose story seemed to be over.
I was able to get into the story more, once I realized that these narrators were victims and then eventually Maurice himself. In a way, I liked seeing the edges of the story and working my way in to the man himself. The setup like this was beautifully done even if it took me a while to “get it.” And it was really interesting to see the character from other perspectives and then get Maurice’s personal accounting from the man himself.
And the story itself, shows the lengths people will go to for ambition, greed, power. And I am sure there are a lot of people who will love to dissect the intricacies of the story, but I’m just not one of them. Like I said, it took me a while to get into the book and then I was just racing to finish it before my loan expired. I wasn’t really invested in the book and found myself just wanting to get through it.
I can see the merit but it just wasn’t for me. This one gets 3 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-