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2.91 AVERAGE
2.91 AVERAGE
The reviews and description kept referring to a ghost, which never appeared or became part of the storyline. Dreadfully boring.
This book features a "novel within a novel" wherein the protagonist "reads" - and therefore we read - an entire novel in the middle of the story. It's a clever idea, but I found the characters in the novel-within-the-novel pretty unlikeable and I wasn't prepared for how long it was. The outer/framing story ends up getting short shrift and is wrapped up far too hurriedly after spending SO MUCH time in the novel-within. She managed to keep me interested, and yet I couldn't really recommend this to others.
One of the worst books I've read in a while. Poorly written, no plot. Blech.
At first I thought this was going to be one of the better books by [a:Ruth Rendell|10890|Ruth Rendell|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1196257541p2/10890.jpg] writing as [a:Barbara Vine|47687|Barbara Vine|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1263385982p2/47687.jpg], when a doctoral student writing a thesis on unmarried mothers in Victorial literature is given an unpublished novel on the same topic, but set in the 1920s and 1930s to read. At the beginning it showed promise of being something like [b:Possession|41219|Possession|A.S. Byatt|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311978255s/41219.jpg|2246190] by [a:A.S. Byatt|1169504|A.S. Byatt|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1221410963p2/1169504.jpg], or, if not quite at that level, like a [a:Robert Goddard|16246|Robert Goddard|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1238359023p2/16246.jpg] novel, with a mystery in the past coming back to haunt people in the present. I kept reading, hoping for some sort of dénouement, which never came.
The past action is all in the unpublished novel, which, dealing with unmarried mothers and homosexuality, could not be published when it was written, as those were taboo topics in those days. The thesis about how the theme of unmarried mothers was dealt with in Victorial literature piqued my interest, as I had just read [b:Oliver Twist|18254|Oliver Twist|Charles Dickens|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327868529s/18254.jpg|3057979], where that is one of the central themes.
But [b:The child's child|11250053|The Snow Child|Eowyn Ivey|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327098624s/11250053.jpg|16176521] is rather disappointing, as it comes in the form of a novella wrapped in a novelette, with very little connection between them. The novella is supposed to be based on the life of a great uncle of one of the characters in the wrapping story, but the connection is not made clear or explained, though one is led to expect that at some point it will be.
[a:Barbara Vine|47687|Barbara Vine|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1263385982p2/47687.jpg] has written better books in this genre in the past -- one of them is [b:Asta's book], which I must perhaps re-read to see why I remember it as so much better than this one.
The past action is all in the unpublished novel, which, dealing with unmarried mothers and homosexuality, could not be published when it was written, as those were taboo topics in those days. The thesis about how the theme of unmarried mothers was dealt with in Victorial literature piqued my interest, as I had just read [b:Oliver Twist|18254|Oliver Twist|Charles Dickens|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327868529s/18254.jpg|3057979], where that is one of the central themes.
But [b:The child's child|11250053|The Snow Child|Eowyn Ivey|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327098624s/11250053.jpg|16176521] is rather disappointing, as it comes in the form of a novella wrapped in a novelette, with very little connection between them. The novella is supposed to be based on the life of a great uncle of one of the characters in the wrapping story, but the connection is not made clear or explained, though one is led to expect that at some point it will be.
[a:Barbara Vine|47687|Barbara Vine|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1263385982p2/47687.jpg] has written better books in this genre in the past -- one of them is [b:Asta's book], which I must perhaps re-read to see why I remember it as so much better than this one.
I generally love Ruth Rendell when she writes as Barbara Vine, and this was no exception. It's a fascinating story, and I enjoyed the unusual structure, of a novel within a novel. This allowed the story to show attitudes towards homosexuality and unmarried mothers in two different times - the present day and around the time of the second world war.
The novel within was, I think, a stronger novel. Perhaps in part because that story was not interrupted. Perhaps because the character of John was sympathetic, and that of his sister Maud increasingly unpleasant.
The comparison of social attitudes was interesting, and considering the violence in both was hardly a reassuring message about progress. Perhaps that was the greatest weakness - the ending of the outer novel seemed a little like a cop out. And the structure was a little unbalanced - that last section felt very rushed.
Still an excellent read, and the character of Maud will stay with me.
The novel within was, I think, a stronger novel. Perhaps in part because that story was not interrupted. Perhaps because the character of John was sympathetic, and that of his sister Maud increasingly unpleasant.
The comparison of social attitudes was interesting, and considering the violence in both was hardly a reassuring message about progress. Perhaps that was the greatest weakness - the ending of the outer novel seemed a little like a cop out. And the structure was a little unbalanced - that last section felt very rushed.
Still an excellent read, and the character of Maud will stay with me.
By far my favorite book of 2012 (even though I read it in 2013). It is a strong, fierce thriller that combines social commentary and suspense...all in one well-written story. It is no surprise to me that Ruth Rendell is still writing strong, highly literary pieces of fiction. She is one of the leaders of the mystery genre, especially British mysteries. Writing here as Barbara Vine, Rendell writes what I think is one of her best in years...lending truth to the adage that some things improves with age.
The story here starts off in 2011 with a sister and her brother, Grace and Andrew, sharing a home in London. They divide the living space of the house equally, a situation which works fine until the brother's lover, James, comes to live with them. James sets off a series of events that neither Grace nor Andrew will ever recover from. While coping, Grace begins reading a long-lost manuscript, never published because its storyline includes unwed mothers and homosexual characters in the 1920s. That's when a completely different part of the story takes over. Or at least we THINK it's different...because it is set in the post-WWI era. Soon, correlations between Grace's modern-day dilemmas and the historical plot become evident.
The historical storyline revolves around a sister, Maud, the youngest child in a very conservative Bristol family, who gets herself pregnant. After telling her family, they want to send her away. But, her brother John has a different idea. He is homosexual and aware that he will never be able to lead a respectable life as a gay man, so he and Maud begin living together as husband and wife...in name only...so that the child does not seem illegitimate.
Both storylines are interesting and compelling but the historical one just captivates the reader with twists and turns that the reader never expects (or at least I didn't). I found both tales together a great commentary on how things regarding sexuality and homosexuality have changed...yet how some things have stayed the same through the centuries.
The story here starts off in 2011 with a sister and her brother, Grace and Andrew, sharing a home in London. They divide the living space of the house equally, a situation which works fine until the brother's lover, James, comes to live with them. James sets off a series of events that neither Grace nor Andrew will ever recover from. While coping, Grace begins reading a long-lost manuscript, never published because its storyline includes unwed mothers and homosexual characters in the 1920s. That's when a completely different part of the story takes over. Or at least we THINK it's different...because it is set in the post-WWI era. Soon, correlations between Grace's modern-day dilemmas and the historical plot become evident.
The historical storyline revolves around a sister, Maud, the youngest child in a very conservative Bristol family, who gets herself pregnant. After telling her family, they want to send her away. But, her brother John has a different idea. He is homosexual and aware that he will never be able to lead a respectable life as a gay man, so he and Maud begin living together as husband and wife...in name only...so that the child does not seem illegitimate.
Both storylines are interesting and compelling but the historical one just captivates the reader with twists and turns that the reader never expects (or at least I didn't). I found both tales together a great commentary on how things regarding sexuality and homosexuality have changed...yet how some things have stayed the same through the centuries.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Barbara Vine is really Ruth Rendell, British mystery writer. Rendell writes as Barbara Vine for the non-mystery books. I was caught up quickly in the story of Grace and Andrew Easton, brother and sister. She's writing a PHD dissertation on a history of the treatment of unwed mothers in Britain and he brings his male lover to their (Andrew and Grace's) house. The lover, James, is very sensitive to the treatment of gays in Britain.
A child's child is their story, but it's also another book-in-a-book, the story of John and Maud, another brother and sister, who have many parallels to Andrew and Grace.
Good book, with much to think about in society's treatment of both unwed mothers and homosexuals, and interesting characters, but the ending was abrupt and not well done. It seemed Rendell/Vine was trying to make a social statement, and just ran out of interesting things to say about her characters.
A child's child is their story, but it's also another book-in-a-book, the story of John and Maud, another brother and sister, who have many parallels to Andrew and Grace.
Good book, with much to think about in society's treatment of both unwed mothers and homosexuals, and interesting characters, but the ending was abrupt and not well done. It seemed Rendell/Vine was trying to make a social statement, and just ran out of interesting things to say about her characters.
A surprising disappointment, Barbara Vine's new novel reads like a first draft, or even worse, a work in progress that needed to be re-thought. The book is comprised of a story within a story, with the tale in the past being a novel based on real events that the main character in the framing story is reading. Both narratives deal with an unwed mother, her brother, and the brother's male lover. The framing narrative takes place in the present, with the historical story taking place between the world wars in the English countryside. One of the drawbacks of the book is that Vine seems to favor polemic over plot: the main themes of the book deal with the social intolerance affecting her characters in the past, when social strictures were more rigid and judgmental, while the present-day characters seem to be freed from this oppression. The problem is, that observation was made in one sentence, and yet Vine seems to think it is somehow worthy of embroidery across the span of a full length novel. Unfortunately, beyond this obvious fact, and the "coincidence" of the relationships of the trio of characters in each story (which can't really be said to be coincidental when this is the deliberate construct of the author), any further comparison of the parallel narratives seems forced and unbelievable. This being Vine/Rendell, I fully expected some sardonic plot twist to tie the twin stories together across time, and the truncated and bewildering ending left me doubly disappointed with the novel. This is a dully plotted and thematically obtuse book peopled with unsympathetic and unpleasant characters. A rare misstep from a usually reliable author.