Genre: Literary
Fiction/Contemporary
Description:
“David, a trust fund baby, has gone through the biggest heartbreak of
his life. He is successful, spontaneous, and generally liked, yet he cannot
hold onto his one true love. Trodding down a street one day, David is bumped on
the shoulder. When he turns around, the individual is staring at him with the
crispest blue eyes he had ever seen. Jolted from his broken heart and thrown
into a world of love so different from what he has known, David ventures on a
journey of self-discovery taking him across the world and through all realms of
emotions.”
Author:
Chadi Nassar: “Chadi’s vivid imagination originated during family road
trips every weekend. Anything could get his mind running, from a garbage bag
swaying in the wind to the person crossing the road. Growing up as an expat in
the UAE he is considered a Third Culture Kid. His adventures as a child and his
ability to create a story out of any object has fueled his passion for writing.
Sculpting David is his debut novel
which is only the start of Chadi’s budding career.”
For more, visit the author's website or Facebook page.
Appraisal:
This story starts with David going through a deep depression after his
girlfriend leaves him. The story is divided into three segments, each told from
first-person points-of-view from David and two other main characters in David’s
journey. The first segment, and the Epilogue is from David’s POV. The reader
easily feels his pain and desperation. The emotional turmoil is raw and he has
separated himself from everything trying to gain the strength to pull his life
back together. There is a lot of repetition in this segment of the book meant
to immerse the reader into David’s state of mind, and it works. However, where
it doesn’t work as well is later in the story when a lot of this is repeated as
he recalls his pain. Perhaps since this book was first released in three
episodes the author felt the necessity for the repetition. However, with the
episodes combined in this book, it’s unnecessary.
David is a unique and interesting character with several positive
attributes. I enjoyed getting to know him. When David is thrown a curve ball
that throws him off balance, he has to come to terms with his sexuality. At the
beginning of his story he truly believed that Helen was the love of his life,
and when she left he was devastated. Now, he has to reevaluate his whole life,
which leads to consequences he wasn’t expecting for himself or from his family.
Time, as it often does, brings deep losses and healing. As David is
settling into his new situation another curve ball is thrown and his life is
turned upside down again. I did notice one character description inconsistency
in this area that is integral to the story. I don’t feel like I can explain
further without a spoiler, so I am going to leave it at that.
I do feel like this book is worth investing in another round of
editing to clean up issues. The story is worth it. Sculpting
David is an enlightening read, full of diverse, well-developed characters,
globetrotting fun, and an emotional roller-coaster ride that will leave you
contemplating life.
FYI:
Sculpting
David is the full version, containing three Episodes - that are available
independently, of The David Saga. Mr. Nassar uses British spelling.
There are a few F-bombs. Sexuality is handled gently and tastefully.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Several small proofing issues such a missing or extra words and the
character inconsistency I mentioned in the review. I also found a few
formatting issues that concerned font size irregularity, this did not distract
me during reading.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 45-50,000 words
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