Review of Bar Maid
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Review of Bar Maid
Bar Maid by Daniel Roberts is a fictional based novel about the story of Charlie Green who is the main character in the book. The author first introduces us to the book with the story of Charlie Green, who is just about to join college in Philadelphia. He is from a Jewish family back in Newyork and his parents are rich owing to his grandmother having an expensive art collection which she had acquired during the second world war in nazi occupied territory. We also get to see Charlie has a brother called John who had given a tonne of advice concerning his stay on campus and overall things he would face in life, which I found quite insightful.
On the first day of joining college, Charlie meets his new roommate by the name of Francis, and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Maglio. The author also introduces us to the other characters in the book like Monica Miller who was the girlfriend to Charlie back in Newyork and Paula his new girlfriend in Philadelphia after things did not seem to work out well with Monica. On his first day, he is assigned a resident advisor called Josh Feldman who was tasked with orienting him to the environment in the college. Charlie is also assigned to an advisor, Victoria Pettibone who suggests he visits a restaurant in Sansom Street Oyster House, an endeavor that will completely change his life.
There are some positive aspects I came across during my course of reading the book, first I liked the way the author used simplistic language in the book which was easy to understand. This helped a lot in the long run as it made the book interesting to read, and it drastically reduced the time I took to read the entire book as no time was wasted looking up complex vocabulary. Also, I enjoyed the way the author portrayed the character of Charlie Green who first despite being entitled to a lot of wealth is very humble. He is also shown as this loving person clearly evident in his love for Paula, his girlfriend. Finally, I enjoyed the depiction of John's character who seemed to have advice for almost everything in this life some of which is very amusing. I found this book exceptionally well-edited.
However, I also came across a few negative aspects in the book, firstly I found the author included soo many characters in the book which at times made it difficult to keep track of all of them. This was very distracting in the long run and reduced my understanding of the entire plot. Also, I felt some characters were not properly introduced by the author, like Cactus and Neil. Finally, I did not like the way the author portrayed Monica Miller where she mentioned a lot each time Charlie's love life is mentioned in the book. I found this to be very irritating, reducing my interest in the story.
In conclusion, I rate the book 3 out of 5 stars. I have deducted two points due to the negative aspects stated above, first with the inclusion of a lot of characters in the book which created lots of confusion, the improper introduction of some characters, and finally the depiction of Monica Miller's character which did not satisfy me. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys drama and thriller-based novels.
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Bar Maid
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