infryq reviewed Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay
Review of 'Potato Factory' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was a hojillion pages of surprisingly well-paced storytelling. Usually longer books like these drag in places, but each time I started to think, "Okay, I'm about done hearing about this," the author immediately moved on.
If I were more motivated, I'd look into where the author got his information about jewish culture, but regardless of whether he actually went to the trouble to be authentic, it seems to jive pretty well with the culturally-but-not-spiritually-jewish people I know. So that was cool too.
The combination of dank, every-man-for-himself london town crime slum with Mary Abacus' persistently uplifting strifedom did a lot to keep the story from becoming stagnant -- add a little revenge, a math puzzle or two, whores and street urchins, and an excellent representation of the thick accents of the characters, and I was totally entertained.
"Always leave a little salt on the bread."