- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: New Press (2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1595581847
- ISBN-13: 978-1595581846
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.8 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing,
By
This review is from: Kennedy's Brain (Hardcover)
(Mild spoilers--warning) I'm always uncomfortable when an author uses fiction as a vehicle to make a social argument or to promote a "cause" especially when it is done in such a heavy-handed way and where the story is really buried in trying to make a point. The plot wanders everywhere and many aspects are never resolved. It's as if the author couldn't be bothered to make a decent story out of it, while underlining the true and overwhelming misery of AIDS in Africa. So, while I agree that the western world is woefully under-informed, I think readers would respond better if Mankell had put in the same meticulous effort in this book as he has in some of his others. There are too many stretches of coincidence and associations that make no sense. To build on the intrigue of "Kennedy's Brain" was quite unrelated to the eventual story--a large part of the novel that was mostly wasted while the thinness of the eventual story emerged. I'm sorry to say, that it was a poor effort on the part of this glorious writer. I really did not like the protagonist at all. I know she wasn't really meant to have a personality--that her function was simply to drive from place to place in the novel--but I wish she had been a little more sympathetic and multi-dimensioned. All her encounters were so similar, it made me wonder at times, if I had flipped back to an earlier part of the book by accident.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
very bad mystery,
By
This review is from: Kennedy's Brain (Hardcover)
In order to have a mystery you need means, motive and opportunity; this particular mystery provides the suspect/s with none of the above. The only enjoyable aspect of the novel was in having the protagonist as a distraught, slightly racist, incompetent, self involved, alcoholic who moved randomly through the plot. Any real leads to any crimes were ignored.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.9 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews) 31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Puzzled,
By Robert A. Johnson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kennedy's Brain: A Novel (Hardcover)
What's going on here? I give five stars to all the Kurt Wallander novels that have been translated into English, except "The Dogs Of Riga," which bogs down and is, overall, a little tedious. "Kennedy's Brain" proved to be disappointing. The book posits a medical conspiracy which is intent on testing all manner of dubious and/or unapproved AIDS drugs on both healthy and dying Africans. The conspirators seem to have killed everyone around the book's heroine, Louise Cantor, but, for some baffling reason, they leave her alone: Louise's ex-husband, Aron, is killed, two Africans Louise befriends are killed (even though they will shortly be dead from AIDS), and Louise's son, Henrik, is killed. Or maybe not. But Louise is more dangerous to the conspiracy than most of these individuals. After 326 pages, we learn very little about this globe-spanning, destroy-everything-in-its-path conspiracy. Is it run by one (!?!) man, Christian Holloway, who appears to be working alone? And what has John F. Kennedy's brain got to do with anything? Some kind of metaphor? I still look forward to Mr. Mankell's future novels about Kurt Wallander and his daughter, but I might also note that the translator, Laurie Thompson, has done a sloppy job in "Kennedy's Brain." In a number of places, words and sentences don't seem to make sense in context. In the final analysis, "Kennedy's Brain" only tells a story on the periphery of the story I wish it had told.
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The plight of the Third World,
By Cory D. Slipman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kennedy's Brain: A Novel (Hardcover)
Accomplished master of the police procedural Henning Mankell strays from this genre in his latest novel, "Kennedy's Brain". In his novel, Mankell in the guise of a mystery, has penned what is in reality a social commentary. Mankell who resides at least partially in Mozambique, takes aim at the plight of the African underprivileged particularly relating to the AIDS epidemic and it's exploitation by the pharmaceutical companies.Swedish archaeologist Louise Cantor whose specialty is ancient Greek artifracts is leading an expedition in Greece sponsored by Uppsala university. She happily anticipates taking a break to return to Stockholm and visit her son Henrik. Much to her shock and dismay she arrives at his flat, unable to raise him on the phone, to find him lying dead in bed. She is stunned to learn that an autopsy confirms that he overdosed on barbiturates. Unable to believe that Henrik would take his own life she commences her own investigation. She travels across the world to a remote area of Australia to recruit her estranged husband Aron and inform him of their son's death. Together they go through his papers that direct them to an apartment their son kept in Barcelona. Hacking into his computer they discover that he was HIV positive and that he had business that took him to Mozambique. Louise Cantor proceeds to Africa after the mysterious disappearance of her ex husband. While there she is confronted by danger and the horrors of a village designed to care for AIDS victims where Henrik had worked. She discovers that there is quite a bit more going on there than administering to the sick. Mankell paints a graphic picture of the misery endured by the suffering in Africa while being critical of those who opportunistically use them for financial gain. The plot of "Kennedy's Brain", metaphor for an inexplicable and secretive mystery is very much similar to Le Carre's "The Constant Gardener". 13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't read this book,
By Robert J. C. Mewes - Published on Amazon.com
While I have read a few other Mankell books and have been modestly entertained I would suggest giving this one a miss as the ending is very weak!The reader is left hanging with the question, "What is the follow up book titled??" I understood all the inuendo "AIDs conspiracy" and all that but after 326 pages of the mother seemingly roaming the world with endless financial resources (archeology must pay well??) (sorry her ex decided for no apparent reason to conveniently travel with a large bundle of cash) and no apparent need for visas etc. as well as putting herself into ridiculously dangerous situations she never solves the mystery but darned if she doesn't feel good about herself and resolves to continue with her quest!! Good for her but bad for the reader. Yawn. |
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