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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this story, but all that comes to mind is "plodding". Maybe it's just me, but I need a plot to move on, past bucolic descriptions and this just didn't. So, I'm at the point in my life where, if a story isn't interesting, I close it down and find something else.
Having read Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand I was looking forward to this, her second book, and it did not disappoint. Simonson's words are evocative of time and place, in this case the small town of Rye, England, just before the onset of World War I.
I gravitate to her strong women who work at standing up for themselves. I especially appreciate her depiction of the foibles and pettiness of those who presume themselves to be of higher standing than others. While some may seem like caricatures, the main female characters - Beatrice and Abagail - have a strong sense of self coupled with determination.
Rye being a small town, the story encompasses what seems like most of its inhabitants, and there is the requisite love story or two. Simonson's later chapters provide what feels like a realistic description of a small segment of the War in France. It is worth reading her Acknowledgements at the end.
I gravitate to her strong women who work at standing up for themselves. I especially appreciate her depiction of the foibles and pettiness of those who presume themselves to be of higher standing than others. While some may seem like caricatures, the main female characters - Beatrice and Abagail - have a strong sense of self coupled with determination.
Rye being a small town, the story encompasses what seems like most of its inhabitants, and there is the requisite love story or two. Simonson's later chapters provide what feels like a realistic description of a small segment of the War in France. It is worth reading her Acknowledgements at the end.
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I usually avoid war era fiction, but the cheery cover of this one made me ignore my own self-imposed rule. Unsurprisingly I finished it in tears, but it was a very immersive story filled with friendship, love, and drama in the very class divided era of pre WWI Britain.
I really wanted to love this novel, and kept waiting for it to just grab me and hold on tight. It never happened. I liked the author's style of writing and the alternating persons narrating. But there were so many unnecessary characters and rabbit-trail story lines that really went nowhere. Eventually I became very bogged down in all the details and the many, many words. It became tiring to try and sort through which characters and details were actually essential to the story and which were peripheral. Therefore, the novel just felt LONG, despite some enjoyable story lines. The Summer Before the War had the potential to be a really great novel, but I feel that it needed a lot more editing to achieve that goal.
I really enjoyed this story. It moves slowly and atmospherically. I really loved all of the characters and the emotion that is created one small step at a time. I also appreciated the view into women at this time. Given our current political climate it was a good reminder of how far women have come in the last century (and how far we still have to go).
This just plods along, slowly and aimlessly. And the title is misleading, the war starts pretty much right away. I started flipping ahead and couldn't get into it so it's going back to the library unfinished.
An old-fashioned story told in a straightforward, old-fashioned way, this story begins in the sweet English summer before WWI. Our heroine, Beatrice, is recently orphaned and is determined to find her own way teaching Latin in darkest Sussex.
Events unfold slowly, with few surprises, as the country turns to war. There are coincidences, Beatrice can be relied upon to faint conveniently, and there are good English country gentry, awful mushroomy English trades folk, noble Tinker families, and appalling British military men.
Thoroughly researched, well written -- I have no real, mechanical complaint about this long novel, but I wasn't especially engaged.
Events unfold slowly, with few surprises, as the country turns to war. There are coincidences, Beatrice can be relied upon to faint conveniently, and there are good English country gentry, awful mushroomy English trades folk, noble Tinker families, and appalling British military men.
Thoroughly researched, well written -- I have no real, mechanical complaint about this long novel, but I wasn't especially engaged.
3.5 stars. A bit uneven in parts but the overall theme is marvelously and subtly done. I don't know that I needed a love story but the British culture in 1917 shines through.
While not my particular genre, it was well-written with good humor and characters. More importantly, it does a great job of subtly highlighting the ideas around class that carry through today.
DNF. I have decided to stop reading this book. It is too hard to get through and I feel like nothing is progressing. The author focuses on details that do not matter to me and just take up time and space. Halfway through and I feel like we are still in the prologue.