Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Revolves around a dysfunctional family of artists. Not du Maurier's best.
Holy underrated book, Batman! I actually liked this one quite a bit more than [b:Rebecca|12873|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298414903s/12873.jpg|46663] and the only thing keeping it from being five stars was that I kept getting distracted by the weird choice for the book's narrator. This story followed the lives of three semi-related siblings, Niall, Maria, and Celia. All of them having at least one parent different from the other. The narrator appears to be either a conglomeration of all three siblings or an omnicient unnamed, unvoiced fourth sibling. A little wierd.
Otherwise, this was brilliant. I love that the senses play a huge roll in this. du Maurier's descriptions of smells, sights, and sounds, especially of music, are really lovely. The majority of the book is set in the 20's/30's via flashbacks from the three siblings to their youthful days. The three siblings themselves made for a really interesting story, their characters were very different from each other. And the thing that really bumped this book up in my opinion was how well tied together the plot was. The ending was phenominal and fit each character's personality to a tee.After only a short while, Maria comes to terms with her divorce, heads back onstage, and prompty moves onto the next chapter of her life, while Niall sets off in his sailboat for France, knowing that he probably won't make it and as the water starts seeping in he simply let's it all go. Perfect.
For a book written in 1949, I thought there was an admirable amount of sex in the book too. Lots of affairs, divorces, illigitimate children, and a little pedophilia and cradle robbing to round it all out. All of it implied, but well implied with no room for doubts.
One of my favourite things about reading older books is picking up on dated science, or any other dated tidbits. My favourite from this one was a reference to Jupiter's two moons. Aren't they up to 60 or something now? Makes you look back and think about all the things we didn't know only 60 years ago. Like a mini lesson in the history of science!
On the other hand, the other reason I love classics is that some things never change. du Maurier makes a great comment about how children these days don't have any imagination, "An armchair is always an armchair, to the modern child, never a ship, never a desert island." That's been the opinion of every old person since the dawn of time. All it means is that you're too old for kids to let you into their imaginary worlds anymore.
Otherwise, this was brilliant. I love that the senses play a huge roll in this. du Maurier's descriptions of smells, sights, and sounds, especially of music, are really lovely. The majority of the book is set in the 20's/30's via flashbacks from the three siblings to their youthful days. The three siblings themselves made for a really interesting story, their characters were very different from each other. And the thing that really bumped this book up in my opinion was how well tied together the plot was. The ending was phenominal and fit each character's personality to a tee.
For a book written in 1949, I thought there was an admirable amount of sex in the book too. Lots of affairs, divorces, illigitimate children, and a little pedophilia and cradle robbing to round it all out. All of it implied, but well implied with no room for doubts.
One of my favourite things about reading older books is picking up on dated science, or any other dated tidbits. My favourite from this one was a reference to Jupiter's two moons. Aren't they up to 60 or something now? Makes you look back and think about all the things we didn't know only 60 years ago. Like a mini lesson in the history of science!
On the other hand, the other reason I love classics is that some things never change. du Maurier makes a great comment about how children these days don't have any imagination, "An armchair is always an armchair, to the modern child, never a ship, never a desert island." That's been the opinion of every old person since the dawn of time. All it means is that you're too old for kids to let you into their imaginary worlds anymore.
wuthering-height vibes, if wuthering heights was set in the first half of the twentieth century and actually had some comedy.