The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles

71tmsy6BgJLTitle: The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles
Author: Katherine Pancol
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: Intelligent, insightful, interesting… this book drew me into the characters’ lives and wouldn’t let me go.

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles begins when Josphine’s husband runs away with his mistress to run a crocodile farm in Kenya. He leaves shy, bookish Josephine short on money and confidence. Her much bolder sister Iris takes advantage by getting Josephine to write a book that will be published under Iris’s name while Josephine pockets the proceeds. Fortunately, in the aftermath of her husband’s departure, Josephine will begin to gain the courage to stand on her own.

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles describes a wide variety of romantic relationships. While that could lead to a book that was just fluffy drama, in Katherine Pancol’s hands it became an intelligent study of human nature. In the author interview at the back of the book, Pancol describes her belief that the plot of a book should flow directly from the characters’ fully imagined personalities. Her book embodied this philosophy, with a beautifully believable, character-driven plot. In that way, it reminded me very much of Someone Else’s Love Story. The author does a great job balancing the many plots her characters find themselves embroiled in. It wasn’t difficult to keep track of relationships and I cared how each and every story was going to play out.

The author’s ability to describe a scene was very impressive. In some books, enough details are shared that it becomes impossible to get an impression of the whole scene. Pancol does an incredible job selecting just the details that convey the character of a scene or a person. The initial scene of this book gave me one of the most vivid mental images I’ve ever gotten from a book. The few words kept in the original French added to the atmosphere. I also enjoyed the details to she chose to share about Josephine’s book writing process. It was just enough to give a general idea of the story and of how it related to Josephine’s life. I think the length of this book and the time it covered was also important for conveying Josephine’s character growth. She changes very gradually and believably. I couldn’t help rooting for her.

As someone who likes happy endings, I liked that things wrapped up with everyone I liked apparently going to get what they wanted. I would have liked a slightly more tied up ending though. For instance, a neighbor has a fascinating secret that’s never connected to the rest of the book. It’s also not entirely clear what’s going to happen next for some of the characters. Fortunately, there are two more books! Hopefully they’ll be translated too, because I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

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10 Comments

Filed under Fiction, Women's Fiction

10 Responses to The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles

  1. Jennine G.

    Oh I read good things about Someone Else’s Love Story and that author over at Andi’s Estella’s Revenge, I think. Comparison noted!
    Jennine G. recently posted…Go Big or Go HomeMy Profile

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  2. bermudaonion (Kathy)

    I wonder if there really are crocodile farms. This sounds right up my alley!
    bermudaonion (Kathy) recently posted…Kid Konnection: BlubberMy Profile

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    • I would guess so, since the book mentions that every part of a crocodile is good for something, whether the edible meat or the skin that’s made into bags and shoes. It was a really great read and definitely something I would guess you would like :)

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  3. Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy

    This sounds like an interesting read – I haven’t read a good character driven story in a while! Great review!

    Reply
    • I don’t think I’d ever read a really amazing character driven read before I basically stopped reading during undergrad. Since I’ve started book blogging, I’ve read a few of them and they’ve been some of my favorite books :)

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  4. Isi

    This author is very popular in my country and we have all her books translated into Spanish but I still haven’t read any of them, although they are on my list since forever! Hope to do it this year.
    I’m very glad you’ve found this one enjoyable :)
    Isi recently posted…Summary of readings, 2013My Profile

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    • I hope you read it this year too and that if you do, you enjoy it as much as I did :) I can’t wait until the rest of her books get translated into english!

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  5. Rebecca @ Love at First Book

    Interesting. We’ve talked about this before – how you like wrapped up endings and I prefer not-wrapped up, but your review intrigues me. I think I’ll try out a sample of the book and see for myself.
    Rebecca @ Love at First Book recently posted…We Need New Names by NoViolet BulawayoMy Profile

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    • I think you would probably like this book quite a bit. The writing was beautiful and the plot reminded me of most of the books we’ve read for SheReads, especially The Husband’s Secret. If you do pick it up, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of the ending. Based on our previous conversations, it does seem like you might like it more than I did :)

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