4 out of 4 stars
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This is a contemporary fictional story that centers around the residents of an apartment building. Cooperative is a high-rise, 35-story complex near Central Park South in Manhattan, New York. The characters of the story are residents and affiliates to the residents of this exclusive apartment building. Cooperative Lives is a drama that thematically revolves around mystery, deception, betrayal, embezzlement and espionage. It brings together rich characters from various professions, mainly, law, IT, medicine, intelligence, finance, literature. The protagonist, Hanife Kaplan is a Kurdish, bilingual, government-trained call-girl. Her life is tied to the other characters in one way or the other.
The title of the book is interesting. The V in 'Lives' is canceled out to read Lie-s. This insinuates that Cooperative Lives is a story about lies and deception connected to Cooperative residents. The twisted plot portrays a patient and an organized author who enjoys unleashing his gems bit by bit. For starters, he provides light information on characters then gradually, he progresses to reveal deep secrets and mysteries. It is not only a story about the inhabitants of a certain cooperative, it's also a story about how their lives are intertwined through incidences and occurrences. These incidents and occurrences, consequently, form a web of complications that threaten to distort the security of their apartment building and the state.
Patrick Finegan uses strong, sophisticated language to narrate the story. In addition, the storyline is rich in vocabularies, metaphors and analogy. He has arranged the story in a way that the chapters start with a timeline. This makes the story easy to follow. Moreover, a traffic-related saying introduces each chapter. Cooperative Lives is written in complexity. Therefore, it takes patience and a clear mind to comprehend the intricate plot. However, it is a captivating story that a reader may find hard to put down. It contains far-spaced, borderline profanities and slight erotic content. The book is professionally edited.
I liked most, the author’s style of revealing information bit by bit. Consequently, this fills the reader with curiosity to dig deeper. His creative characterization and narration imparts a feeling of being an active participant in the lives of the characters. I did not like anything least because the book is written well. Nevertheless, the complexity is overwhelming. I had to read and reread in order to comprehend what the author was driving at.
I recommend this book to the readers who love complex storylines and those who have the patience to read between the lines. This book is a treasure field; one has to dig, with patience, so as to find the hidden gems.
I came across one minor error. I will not rate this book 3 stars because its plot and grammar are exceptional and it is professionally edited. The quality of the script is very high. I rate the Cooperative Lives 4 out of 4 stars.
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Cooperative Lives
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