Reaction to The Rock of Tanios

2. What do you think about the book so far? Is there anything that you especially like or dislike about the plot, setting, or characters?

So far in my reading, The Rock of Tanios has proved to be an agreeable story. It can certainly be considered a 'good book', and I can see why it won the Goncourt Prize in 1993 but it does not necessarily reflect my favorite type of writing personally. I like the characters because Maalouf makes them very believable and real. Gerios, for example is a very dynamic character as his personality changes completely after he murders the Patriarch in the heat of the moment. At first he is the most disciplined of men, but he loosens up after his crime and bonds with his son (though there's a chance Tanios is not his son). Because the novel is set in Lebanon, I can relate to the setting a bit, and the culture of the Lebanese. That said, I'm wasn't familiar with the historical context of the story, and didn't fully understand references to invasions by the Egyptians, etc. So the political aspect of it confused me a little, but as I learned more about that I understood. It is interesting that the setting is quite feudalistic, and that Sheikh's and Amir's ruled Mount Lebanon because it takes us back to a very different time but we can still see some ruins of palaces till today. The plot could be more exiting, it is intriguing enough, but I feel that story sometimes seems to be going too slowly, although the writing does flow nicely. I have a feeling that the end of the novel will be very interesting and I do look forward to the conclusion.