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mwgerard's review against another edition
5.0
The sun had not yet set on the Gilded Age when Armand De Potter disappeared. In 1905, Europe was still, officially, at peace and the best families still considered a grand tour part of every civilised life. De Potter set up a thriving tour company. Relying on his amateur historical knowledge to provide unique itineraries, he also bought curios and antiquities along the way. He was a collector — of things, memories, histories, experiences.
So far, all of this is true.
As is the part where De Potter disappears without a trace. He never disembarks from the ship he was traveling on. His body is never found.
What happened to him that night, and in all the in-between moments of his life are filled in by the author, Joanna Scott. Scott happens to be De Potter’s great granddaughter. When she accidentally discovered a steamer trunk full of papers and photographs, she decided to reconstruct the life of her great grandfather.
I asked her a few questions about the process.
Please read my interview and the rest of my review on my site: http://mwgerard.com/review-de-potters-grand-tour/
So far, all of this is true.
As is the part where De Potter disappears without a trace. He never disembarks from the ship he was traveling on. His body is never found.
What happened to him that night, and in all the in-between moments of his life are filled in by the author, Joanna Scott. Scott happens to be De Potter’s great granddaughter. When she accidentally discovered a steamer trunk full of papers and photographs, she decided to reconstruct the life of her great grandfather.
I asked her a few questions about the process.
Please read my interview and the rest of my review on my site: http://mwgerard.com/review-de-potters-grand-tour/
servemethesky's review against another edition
5.0
De Potter's Grand Tour was not what I was expecting- it was better. I was expecting a book about a man who is lost at sea. I was expecting a nice historical backdrop and a good story. I got all those things, and more.
As we learn about Armand De Potter through his eyes and his wife's, we discover that he's not the man he has cast himself to be. There are many layers to De Potter, and he is the ultimate in self-creation. He crafted his own identity when he first moved to America, and continued to cultivate a persona when he married Amy Beckwith and started his European tour business. This reminded me of Nabokov's work, the ways in which characters (and unreliable narrators) create versions of themselves as they wish to be seen. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a good example of this.
I was somewhat confused by the transitions in time in the novel as we flash back from the present (Armand and Aimee) to Armand first moving to America, to Armand at sea, then forward to his wife Aimee and his son Victor after he is lost at sea. This ultimately worked well for the narrative, though, as it cultivated the dreamy, mysterious sense that permeated the novel.
I found the ending surprisingly moving. The subversion of the reader's expectation with regards to Armand's fate, as well as the turn towards Scott herself, and her mother, and all the possibilities and sadness and love represented in the form of the stranger at the door, were enough to make me a little misty-eyed in the final scene.
Scott has expertly crafted a beautiful and poignant novel, an epic and moving love story that subverts expectations throughout. Love this blend of history and literature, fact and fiction. Bravo.
As we learn about Armand De Potter through his eyes and his wife's, we discover that he's not the man he has cast himself to be. There are many layers to De Potter, and he is the ultimate in self-creation. He crafted his own identity when he first moved to America, and continued to cultivate a persona when he married Amy Beckwith and started his European tour business. This reminded me of Nabokov's work, the ways in which characters (and unreliable narrators) create versions of themselves as they wish to be seen. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a good example of this.
I was somewhat confused by the transitions in time in the novel as we flash back from the present (Armand and Aimee) to Armand first moving to America, to Armand at sea, then forward to his wife Aimee and his son Victor after he is lost at sea. This ultimately worked well for the narrative, though, as it cultivated the dreamy, mysterious sense that permeated the novel.
I found the ending surprisingly moving. The subversion of the reader's expectation with regards to Armand's fate, as well as the turn towards Scott herself, and her mother, and all the possibilities and sadness and love represented in the form of the stranger at the door, were enough to make me a little misty-eyed in the final scene.
Scott has expertly crafted a beautiful and poignant novel, an epic and moving love story that subverts expectations throughout. Love this blend of history and literature, fact and fiction. Bravo.
jaclynday's review against another edition
2.0
A novel-that’s-not-quite-fiction, De Potter’s Grand Tour is based on Scott’s great-grandfather, Armand de Potter. In the book, Armand and wife Aimee run a successful business leading tours of Europe for wealthy travelers. Armand, a long-time adventurer, is also a passionate collector of antiquities. Then, Armand disappears while traveling on a ship near Greece. After resigning herself to Armand’s death, Aimee begins to sort through the (not inconsequential) mysteries of their life together. Despite what sounded like a great plot with fascinating characters, this book never got off the ground for me. The characters seemed one-dimensional (Aimee improves as the book proceeds), but that could be owed to Scott being hesitant to take too much license. They’re her relatives, after all.
mwgerard's review
5.0
The sun had not yet set on the Gilded Age when Armand De Potter disappeared. In 1905, Europe was still, officially, at peace and the best families still considered a grand tour part of every civilised life. De Potter set up a thriving tour company. Relying on his amateur historical knowledge to provide unique itineraries, he also bought curios and antiquities along the way. He was a collector — of things, memories, histories, experiences.
So far, all of this is true.
As is the part where De Potter disappears without a trace. He never disembarks from the ship he was traveling on. His body is never found.
What happened to him that night, and in all the in-between moments of his life are filled in by the author, Joanna Scott. Scott happens to be De Potter’s great granddaughter. When she accidentally discovered a steamer trunk full of papers and photographs, she decided to reconstruct the life of her great grandfather.
I asked her a few questions about the process.
Please read my interview and the rest of my review on my site: http://mwgerard.com/review-de-potters-grand-tour/
So far, all of this is true.
As is the part where De Potter disappears without a trace. He never disembarks from the ship he was traveling on. His body is never found.
What happened to him that night, and in all the in-between moments of his life are filled in by the author, Joanna Scott. Scott happens to be De Potter’s great granddaughter. When she accidentally discovered a steamer trunk full of papers and photographs, she decided to reconstruct the life of her great grandfather.
I asked her a few questions about the process.
Please read my interview and the rest of my review on my site: http://mwgerard.com/review-de-potters-grand-tour/
kali's review
3.0
Set mainly in the first decade of the 20thC, this is a story of Armand and Aimee de Potter, an American couple who lead tours of Europe and Egypt. Until Armand disappears off the side of a boat one day and Aimee pieces together the lies that her husband has told about his life. We see excerpts of Aimee’s diary, introspection and tick-tacking back and forth through time with Armand’s perspective as he contemplates what he is about to do. I thought the inclusion of black and white photographs ingenious, a bit like William Boyd’s Sweet Caress, until I discovered that these were real photographs and the story is based on the author’s great-grandparents and the remnants of this episode that she found locked in a steamer trunk. The fashioning of the story, in photograph-like vignettes made sense from a craft perspective then, and knowing it was based on true events to begin with would have improved my enjoyment of it. However, there was something missing for me at the heart of the story.
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