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HomeShop at BookSurgeBody, Mind & SpiritHealingEnergy (Chi Kung, Reiki, Polarity)Portobello: One: PortoCaicos - An island in the stream |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 4 customer reviews )
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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Lines in the Sand Nov 29, 2009
By Ken Schaffer
This is a massive trilogy with worldwide scope that starts as just a bit of local thievery. It is about rich versus poor, stupid against bright, black versus white and women challenged by male chauvinism. In orbit over all of this is a story about the media biz. Author Bob Cooper shows a mastery of how and why media works and the tremendous influences it can exert on a culture under stress. Local radio permeates Portobello throughout the trilogy; Cooper uses radio newscasts - as actually broadcast on the island's radio station, WIV, to keep the story moving and cohesive. "Pip-pip-pip; Good day; it is Wednesday 12 noon in the Turks and Caicos Islands and this is Karen Monasto with the mid-day edition news ... ." (Pip-pip-pip? One of many remnants of British tradition, uttered here to announce a news bulletin.)
If there is one group of potential readers which should find the Portobello trilogy hard to put down, it will be members --especially female members-- of the media world. Author Cooper spent 50 years in that world, and his experience shines through with intimate details that make the fantastic story almost historical. A fun side-bar to reading Portobello is in pondering and trying to guess the identity of international personalities who appear in Portobello and play cameo roles, including famed CNN anchor Bernard Shaw. Cooper has created something that is more than an evening's read - one to savour over many days and dwell upon, evermore.
 Portobello-One Dec 12, 2011
By Tom Humphries
Portobello: One made me recall my own life by connecting me to a period when I actually owned a business and worked there (Providenciales) in what I had imagined as 'semi-retirement'. There was a period in the 80s that ran into the 90s when life in the Turks & Caicos was almost exactly as Portobello paints it; right down to the series 'characters' - most of whom I can see in front of me as I read the three books. Charles Scott, the attorney, who is properly identified in book 3 as (real world) Clare Skatfeld, was in fact my attorney while there and reading Portobello made me realize what an unusual and special person he was; and, a vital ingredient in the growth of Portobello/Providenciales. This is a tightly wound, complex story which is recommended for fans of Tom Clancy in particular; it qualifies for that level of intrigue and detailed plots that jump out at you chapter after chapter. It helps to appreciate the nuances of the Turks & Caicos - if not two decades back, now, but it is not essential for a fully enjoyable read.
Tom Humphries
 Lots of action - not much else to recommend it Feb 01, 2011
By SJP
I stumbled across this book looking for fiction set in the Turks & Caicos Islands, before taking a vacation there. So far I've just finished the first volume of the trilogy, and since I've already purchased all three, I may as well keep going.
On the positive side, there is always something going on - a nice active plotline - some of it wildly improbable, but it does move right along. However, there's not much to be said for the characterization - cardboard cutouts who think and speak in similar language - and the book is larded with lengthy descriptions of sex presented from the perspective of female characters, descibing what the (male) author imagines to be their sexual responses. The book was self-published, and one wonders if professional editing would have helped. An editor might at least have straightened out the syntax here and there (though on the whole the author's style is clear enough) and informed the author that "simplistic" is not a synonym for "simple".
I didn't find volume one to present a particularly gripping picture of the role of media in contemporary society, though the potential is there in the final chapters of the volume, in which the news media do play a central role. No doubt some knowledge of local history would have made the book more interesting - but for those of us lacking in such knowledge, my recommendation re volume one is: save your money.
Three Huge Books In Island Triology Nov 16, 2009
By Shubooti
Portobello One is the first in a three book trilogy, and each is a huge book. These are not your normal "fit in your back pocket" paperbacks - each book is twice the (physical) size (width and height) of most paperbacks, and roughly 600 pages each. You get a lot of bang for your buck. You definitely need to read them in order (Porto One - Porto Two -Porto Three). They are not so much sequels, but it is definitely a continuing story. Each builds on the previous book. You will need to be familiar with the characters in the preceding book to follow the story in 'Two' and 'Three'. While the book(s) are fiction, the characters are based on real people who lived on Portobello (actually Providenciales (informally known as Provo, in the Turks & Caicos Islands), and the story reads like actual history - as it could have been - and partially has actually come to past.
If you like intrigue on a large scale, especially based on real places and real people, you'll love the book. It begins as a local plot, and before it ends, unfolds into a global mystery. The books are big, and the scope of the underlying plans of the movers and shakers is bigger. It's as real as it gets, without actually being on the evening news.
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