• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Travelling Bibliophile

  • Home
  • About
  • Book Review Policy
  • Sponsored/Collaborative Work
  • Contact

Book Club Read: I Am Pilgrim

4th September 2015 by Gemma Leave a Comment

I Am Pilgrim

I came upon this book via one of the girls from book club, when we were on a crime/thriller spree earlier this year. It was published two summers ago in 2013, and a year later, its movie rights were bought by MGM. The author, Terry Hayes, used to be a journalist (a foreign correspondent in the US for the Sydney Morning Herald who covered the Nixon/Watergate scandal) but his writing skills have been more recently used for screenwriting (although by recent, I meant late 90s to early 2000). His latest venture has been the book I Am Pilgrim, and I reckon he’s probably also involved in the screenwriting process for the movie.

The book’s opening scene starts with quite a big splash — a crime scene in central New York, a ‘remarkable murder’ as described by the main protagonist in first person POV. From there everything just runs, trickles of information coming out about the mystery, about our main man and his past adventures, about another man miles away in the Middle East and his own journey, and how they come together as opposing sides in the fight of “good vs evil”.

The principal character is a man adept at putting on different personas, a spy thoroughly skilled for someone his age. The details as to why comes in bits and pieces, as he goes through the story in “one last mission” as requested by his ‘company’. On the other side, the main antagonist is a man on a mission of retribution, patient and methodical, that it does not bother him that it takes years to exact his revenge. The author is quite adept at pacing both stories, releasing the particulars bit by bit, that a reader (or at least this reader) cannot help but run through each page to get on the next to see what happens or what new information will be revealed.

I honestly enjoyed reading this book. I don’t know if the author’s experience as a screenwriter contributed to it (or that he definitely hoped it will be picked up and made into a movie — which it did), but reading it was very much like watching a blockbuster movie, where you jump from one scene to the next, wanting to know what happens but not exactly thinking too much about whether it all ties together cohesively. I was just running through page after page, trying to finish it as quick as I can because it was so exciting, and also so I can return to my life (husband was feeling neglected! Haha).

I did have a few thoughts in my head, especially the way the antagonist was written. It did not portray conservative (or is it fundamentalist?) Islam that well, and I’m not sure if it was accurate — I was hoping that Mr. Hayes’ skills as an investigative reporter was put to use for that. The fascinating opening mystery turned out to be a side plot, which afterwards made me think whether it was merely used to grab a reader’s attention because it bore no importance to the overall plot. Minus that gripping start, it probably could’ve been taken out with no loss to the plot. The only thing I can think of is that the circumstances involving it lent the glamour bit in the spying, where the public has been used to James Bond and his trips to interesting locales and visits to yachts and living with the rich and luxurious.

I’ve read a few negative reviews on this book, and some of them do make a point. However, if you treat it like a summer blockbuster film — just keep reading, keep reading and enjoy the moment, don’t pause and think — then it will be an enjoyable read. It’s not a book that you come out from and internalise or take to heart. Treat it as simple entertainment, then maybe you won’t be too disappointed.

“Nobody’s ever been arrested for a murder; they have only ever been arrested for not planning it properly.”
– Terry Hayes (I Am Pilgrim)

RATING:
see ratings explanation
 


 
Let’s have a chat!
What are your favourite spy novels?

Filed Under: books, books: 2015, crime/detective, espionage, fiction, mystery, narrative, thriller Tagged With: book review, books, books: 2015, crime/detective, fiction, fictional narrative, mystery, spy fiction, thriller

« Reading Challenge 2015: Persepolis
Book Club Read: The Goldfinch »

Reader Interactions

  • Photo Log: Sydney Coastal Walks 2013 – Part II

    Photo Log: Sydney Coastal Walks 2013 – Part II
  • Book Club Read: The Paying Guests

    Book Club Read: The Paying Guests
  • Food, Glorious Food: Aqua Dining

    Food, Glorious Food: Aqua Dining
  • Reading Challenge 2015: Vampire Academy

    Reading Challenge 2015: Vampire Academy
  • When You Find You’re Unable to Read or Write

    When You Find You’re Unable to Read or Write

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Or, you can subscribe without commenting.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Gemma

Born in Manila, based in London. Endless curiosity turns into infinite adventures.    "I read; I travel; I become."

 

Connect

email twitterInstagram facebook BloglovinGoodReadsPinterest

 

Instagram Slider

Instagram requires authorization to view a user profile. Use autorized account in widget settings

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

All text and images on this website are originally by the author unless otherwise stated.


Social media icons from Iconfinder 1 2 3 4
Bookmark icons from FreePik

Footer

Categories

Archives

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
All text and images on this website are originally by the author unless otherwise stated.
Social media icons from Iconfinder 1 2 3 4
Bookmark icons from FreePik

Copyright © 2019 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress