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monazaneefer's review against another edition
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
Format: Audible
For a while now, I've been looking for a light read to get into between classics, which are quite dense of course. And finally, I've got one and am glad it's a series!
This book is very much catered to a specific audience so I can imagine why a lot may find this boring. But this being a family saga of an upper class British family that's set in the early 20th century, it's up my alley. So it having next-to-no plot didn't bother me.
Although this book is very much absorbing and binge-worthy on its own (I listened to it almost non-stop), I don't feel compelled to pick the next book right away. Given the fact that this book alone is large and stretches the everyday-ness of the characters, I feel like I've drunk the entirety of the cup for now. I'm basically full in a content sort of manner and I'll pick another when I'm thirsty again.
As for my qualms, I know it's meant to be a light read, but I wish the characters had a firm foot in this story. It's not like something significant has to happen to them but at least have some situation that's specific to them and out of the ordinary everyday-ness that this book focusses on. This would've accentuated the individuality of each character and made each unique as opposed to just being 'another' from the large cast of characters. The large cast gets a bit overwhelming, especially when more characters keep entering the novel. Amongst the adults, I enjoyed reading about Rupert and Zoe and really hope to see them in the second novel. And as for the kids, apart from the older boys, I found them all to be amusing (especially the younger ones). But it is Polly and Louise I like best. I skipped Rachel and Sid's bits. Not interested.
Format: Audible
For a while now, I've been looking for a light read to get into between classics, which are quite dense of course. And finally, I've got one and am glad it's a series!
This book is very much catered to a specific audience so I can imagine why a lot may find this boring. But this being a family saga of an upper class British family that's set in the early 20th century, it's up my alley. So it having next-to-no plot didn't bother me.
Although this book is very much absorbing and binge-worthy on its own (I listened to it almost non-stop), I don't feel compelled to pick the next book right away. Given the fact that this book alone is large and stretches the everyday-ness of the characters, I feel like I've drunk the entirety of the cup for now. I'm basically full in a content sort of manner and I'll pick another when I'm thirsty again.
As for my qualms, I know it's meant to be a light read, but I wish the characters had a firm foot in this story. It's not like something significant has to happen to them but at least have some situation that's specific to them and out of the ordinary everyday-ness that this book focusses on. This would've accentuated the individuality of each character and made each unique as opposed to just being 'another' from the large cast of characters. The large cast gets a bit overwhelming, especially when more characters keep entering the novel. Amongst the adults, I enjoyed reading about Rupert and Zoe and really hope to see them in the second novel. And as for the kids, apart from the older boys, I found them all to be amusing (especially the younger ones). But it is Polly and Louise I like best. I skipped Rachel and Sid's bits. Not interested.
as120's review against another edition
5.0
Just a really good and enjoyable book, following all the members of the fictional Cazalet family in the late 1930s and I really look forward to reading the rest of the series (I've never read a family saga series before!). I loved all the different perspectives and how we saw the complexity of each and every characters inner lives and the importance of them all to each other (this is after all a book about a family). The back of the book suggests it is just about the 4 adult Cazalet children (Edward, Hugh, Rupert and Rachel) and obviously they are major players but the brother's wives, Rachel's girlfriend and all of the brothers children, also the family's servants are given just as much (often more) narrative importance.
The vast majority of the characters were very likeable and sympathetic (and they did feel very real as people) which is what I like in a book, I like to like the people I'm reading about. I also thought it was a wonderful evocation of its era showing all the complexities and difficulties that people at that time faced as well as their values (and how those differed from person to person) and their hopes for the future. The characters (like all people) are very much created by their circumstances and their time (eg. the fear of the impending world war II is based very much on their experiences of WWI- which two of the brothers fought in) and as someone who loves history I find that very interesting, it also just makes these characters more human, like anybody else. It is the ordinary humanity of the characters that I think is the greatest strength of this book.
The vast majority of the characters were very likeable and sympathetic (and they did feel very real as people) which is what I like in a book, I like to like the people I'm reading about. I also thought it was a wonderful evocation of its era showing all the complexities and difficulties that people at that time faced as well as their values (and how those differed from person to person) and their hopes for the future. The characters (like all people) are very much created by their circumstances and their time (eg. the fear of the impending world war II is based very much on their experiences of WWI- which two of the brothers fought in) and as someone who loves history I find that very interesting, it also just makes these characters more human, like anybody else. It is the ordinary humanity of the characters that I think is the greatest strength of this book.
_ottavia_'s review against another edition
5.0
Per una volta un libro che mi aspettavo fosse deludente visto il grande successo ottenuto si è rivelato bello. Per me, anche bellissimo. Al punto da non saper cosa leggere ora, perchè come si fa a paragonare qualsiasi libro con i dettagli, la psicologia, i personaggi della famiglia Cazalet? Mi mancheranno tutti, dal primo all'ultimo, anche quelli che pensavo di odiare per poi accorgermi che, in fondo, magari anche no. E insomma, quando sarò un po' meno povera comprerò il secondo.
bookbound2019's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
clairel610's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jollie721's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
lucyblack's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Light Years is the first in a 5 book series about an English family and this first novel takes place in 1937 and 1938. The story is told, without chapters and in a series of vignettes told from different characters, at times the reader might hear the same occurence from two or more characters. The main characters are a set of adolescent cousins and their middle aged parents. The families meet at an idyllic country house and do summer things and angst over the usual human stuff like crushes, illness, money, affairs and in this case war. The Light Years could have easily been patriotic and trite and white and whilst it sometimes is a bit middle class for my tastes, Elizabeth Jane Howard seems aware of this and manages to follow some more radical storylines. As well as being sweet and nostalgic The Light Years is also dark, queer, political and fascinating.
kduhy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
April Savidge prompt; Read a book tuber or bookstagrammer's favourite books of 2023.
Lauren and the books had picked this series as her favourite read of 23 and as I have had four of these books waiting to be read on my shelves.....
As the Cazalet family gathers in the East Sussex Countryside of 1938 the onset of war is about to rear its ugly head and change everything. There are five Cazalet siblings and we get to find out about them, their parents, family and friends.
There are lots of; children and babies arriving, many baths being taken, affairs, servants, a hint at incest, one-sided female relationship, talk about the 'Crisis' and much more in this first book in the series.
Now I've started, will have to read the next four.
Lauren and the books had picked this series as her favourite read of 23 and as I have had four of these books waiting to be read on my shelves.....
As the Cazalet family gathers in the East Sussex Countryside of 1938 the onset of war is about to rear its ugly head and change everything. There are five Cazalet siblings and we get to find out about them, their parents, family and friends.
There are lots of; children and babies arriving, many baths being taken, affairs, servants, a hint at incest, one-sided female relationship, talk about the 'Crisis' and much more in this first book in the series.
Now I've started, will have to read the next four.