How to write a review for the New FCE exam? Here’s a topic and sample answer.
Part 2
You must answer this question. Write your answer in 140- 190 words in an appropriate style on the separate answer sheet.
An international arts website is looking for reviews of books for a new section called ‘A Reader Writes’. You have decided to write a review of a novel you’ve recently read for this section. Describe the novel and say what you think about it. Would you recommend this novel to other people?
Sample review
The last book I read was “Talking about her” written by Banana Yoshimoto. She is a Japanese author who became well-known in European literature thanks to her book “Kitchen”. Yoshimoto’s growing popularity made it possible to translate her bestsellers into many languages and among those also Italian.
The book is set in Japan and the main character is Yoko- a woman who is not able to remember her childhood. The only flashbacks she revisits bring back the friendship with her cousin.They were separated when children but little do they know their paths are meant to cross again. The two cousins decide to start a journey to commemorate Yoko’s mother’s death and during this trip the reader can discover the complexity of these two characters.
Yoshimot has written an easy to follow novel about daily Tokyo life which lifts the western’s readers’ out of their everyday routine into an Oriental world where popular traditions create an atmosphere of magic and illusion.
I would recommend this book to anyone, though it could appear as slow-paced and at times depressive. That being said, it depicts a window on Japanese culture and its mystic atmosphere attacks the reader leaving him puzzled and shocked.
