Shell EXPORT Paperback – January 1, 2018

Beautifully written with a language that not only gives me the visual picture but also other senses like smell and sound. She use the language to paint a story that reminds me of my favorite Swedish masters like Moberg. Being Swedish myself its unusual to read some Swedish baked into the story.

Shell by Kristina Olsson is a historical fiction novel that tells the story of a Swedish glassmaker and a fiercely independent Australian journalist are thrown together amidst the turmoil of the 1960s and the dawning of a new modern era.The main character Pearl is a headstrong and ambitious newspaper reporter has put her job in jeopardy to become involved in the anti-war movement. Pearl is also hiding a secret shame—the guilt she feels for not doing more for her younger siblings after their mother’s untimely death.Shell is a good read but there are areas where it was slow moving and I struggled to finish but the interest in the storyline between Pearl and Axel kept me reading for the possibility of what could become. Olssen was very detailed in her writing and this makes for an interesting read. 3.5 stars.Reviewed by: Kisha Green for Literary JewelsFormat: HardcoverReview Copy Supplied By Publisher

Some of this book is well written and some of is over-wrought, confusing and not short on cliche. Of the two main characters, Pearl and Axel, the first is extremely well done while the second is thin and one dimensional. Annoyingly, the relationships between Jorn Utzon and the NSW Government is reduced to cartoonish simplicity and hopelessly one-sided. This book could have been a lot better perhaps with the assistance of a competent editor and more discipline from the author.

It was the 1960s and Australia was on the brink of change. The Vietnam War was about to take a poke at Australia’s youth – and the Sydney Opera House was under construction. The draft for the Vietnam War was in the form of a lottery, and all the young people who were born within a certain time period had their birth dates put in a barrel. If you were lucky, your birth date didn’t come out. (My husband’s didn’t thank goodness!)Journalist Pearl Keogh was in a desperate search for her two younger brothers whom she hadn’t seen in years. Pearl was anti-war and an activist – her protesting could put her career at risk; but her guilt was deep, so she was determined to find her brothers to help them avoid the draft.Meanwhile, Axel Lindquist, newly arrived from Sweden, was working as a sculptor on the Opera House. His art work was his salvation – his hopes were that the new country would also help him find the inspiration he had lost during WWII. Pearl’s and Axel’s lives would come together in this period of change…Shell is the debut novel by Aussie author Kristina Olsson and while fully aware of the poignancy and beautiful writing, I found myself struggling, putting the book down and going back to it days later. The author has indulged in my pet hate – no speech marks – with the dialogue in italics inside the paragraphs. Very off-putting for me I’m afraid. The cover is stunning, but I’m disappointed I didn’t love this book as I expected to. That said, I’ll still recommend it to others who are sure to enjoy it more than I did.

During the Vietnam War, other countries besides the United States issued national military drafts.Australia's intention to call up eligible men to fight terrified Pearl Keogh, for two very important reasons besides being against war. After their mother's death, Pearl's two younger siblings had run away from home. Will Pearl's desperation to find her brothers end up calling attention to them at a time that they needed to be unseen?Newly arrived in Australia from Sweden, Axel Lindquist was commissioned to work as a sculptor on the besieged Sydney Opera House. With the project in question with the war looming and the architect missing, what will happen with Axel?The two stories start to intertwine too late and the plot is sluggish. The biggest problem that I have with the novel comes at the beginning. Pearl is supposed to be a newspaper reporter, but her vernacular does not reflect that. The dialogue that is attributed to her is poorly written, with choppy sentence structure as the major problem. When a book is hard to get into from the start, it makes it almost impossible to like. For these reasons, I would not recommend Shell to other readers.Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Shell by NetGalley and the publisher. The choice to read and review this book was entirely my own.

My feelings about this book are very divided. On one hand, I was fascinated by Olsson’s evocation of the setting; Sydney in the mid-60’s was a culture deeply divided between its past and its future. On the brink of the Vietnam war draft, with the iconic Opera House in mid-construction, Australia was a country of immigrants unsure how to deal with its diversity.Ultimately, though, the plot moved too languidly to keep me fully engaged. I was interested by Pearl and Axel, and their back-stories, but not enough to continue to plow through the adjectives and beautifully written turns of phrase.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It was very slow reading in the beginning and the constant back and forth between characters and time periods (something that seems to be popular with writers lately) was irritating. The writing was poetic at times but in other times just wordy. I think this writer shows promise, though, and I look forward to her next book to see if that promise is realized. For this book, though, it was 'just ok' for me.

Beautifully written really captures the spirit of Sydney and The Opera House. Parts of this novel were so emotive they made me cry

Great work will be looking for more works by this author. Would recommend it to those who have lived through the building of the Opera House as it seems very factual.

The construction of the Sydney Opera House in 1960’s Australia, should have been the basis for a great novel, but sadly the author looses sight of her plot in a jumble of waffly words and overblown phrases. If you are not Australian and do not know anything about the political drama and struggle that went into this building then I am afraid this book will not enlighten you. I had to refer to Wikipedia. This book never really comes to life. We never really get to know the main characters and after a while, I stopped caring. It was also difficult to understand what they were both doing, especially Axel, the glassmaker. He should have been luminous, but the author shrouds him in too many heavy adjectives, like a window with too many blinds.But the most annoying part of this book, is the ending! What exactly happened? It is just not clear! As I say this book is totally overwritten, confusing and ultimately boring.Every so often the author throws in a few gems eg: ‘the new government behaved as if the building was a millstone rather than a monument. a shining symbol of what was to come’ but in sixties Australia ‘it was a kind of sport to belittle those with vision to treat art with disdain.’ This is the story I wanted the author to continue with! She should have ditched Pearl and Axel and written about the Danish architect instead!

わかりやすく、気軽に読めるのに、問題提起は大きなものでした。サーファーのみなさんにぜひ読んでもらいたいです。それから子供たちにも。

Liked the exploration of many of Sydney’s historic areas but found the whole story contrived and far too wordy.