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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Probably her masterpiece although my fave is still A Dark-Adapted Eye. Gerald, Hope, and Sarah: awful people tbh. This is exactly the kind of story I like told in a way I like and even though I remembered the main thrust of it from reading it years ago it still holds up and kept me gripped.
Spoiler
I don't even like the fact that maybe Jason will prove to be Sarah's redemption because honestly she doesn't deserve it. Hope, a lost cause; I kept imagining her as looking like a former colleague, easily the most difficult person I've ever worked with. Her thing about hats, so weirdly frumpy. Fabian, who only went to his future father-in-law's funeral because he'd never been to one before: what a catch. Gerald was so vile to everyone bar his daughters that I couldn't see that he was tortured by guilt/pain unless he was just pickled in it. Also if Stefan looked so much like him wouldn't people who knew Gerald -- like his former publisher at Hope's wedding -- have remarked upon it? but that's me picking holes. Hopefully Ursula focuses upon her partner's family and forgets all about her own.
Suspected the ending but the book was truly bonkers. In a good way. The suspense was amazing.
A good book, but quite disturbing. I pretty much guessed all of the details early on (which I assume the author intended), but it's still pretty upsetting.
Hated the first chapter, but Ursula was introduced in the second and I felt an affinity to her. But then she became annoying in her acquiescence. And her daughters were just downright annoying all through the book, having had a rather sick relationship with their father, and then always, always the tears!!!! What really irritated me though was that the reader was made privy to all the "clues" in the "mystery", but the characters themselves never caught on - how bizarre!!! A totally predictable ending, and I couldn't WAIT to be done with this horrid book!
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Written when she was 68 -- interesting insights into lust. Kind of fizzled toward the end.
3.5 stars
I read this because someone gave it to me.
Despite being written in the late 90s, it came across as really old-fashioned - in style and in characterisation. A somewhat disconcerting experience, but was still a suspenseful page-turner.
I read this because someone gave it to me.
Despite being written in the late 90s, it came across as really old-fashioned - in style and in characterisation. A somewhat disconcerting experience, but was still a suspenseful page-turner.
The characters were so intriguing!!! I didn't necessarily like any of them, but I wanted to know more and couldn't put the book down. Controversial themes, questions of identity- it all seemed very realistic. I especially loved the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, and I envisioned her creating each of these "novels" with a specific purpose. I enjoyed her writing in this not-so-typical mystery.
I had a great time leading an email book group discussion on this book in July 2000. That means I've got a pile of comments on it as long as something a lot longer than my arm. I just need to get them all out of the archives....
Ruth Rendell is a wonderful writer and this is one of her best. A best-selling and critically acclaimed writer, Gerald Candless, has a fatal heart attack and is mourned by his two adoring daughters and, -sort of- by his wife. The publisher is looking for one of the daughters to do a biography and Sarah, the oldest, an English professor, takes it up. The mystery is: who is Gerald Candless, really? We learn bits as we see the three women handle the death and we learn even more from Sarah's investigation. It seems there's no record of any family or work or educational history for Gerald before he turns 25. Hmmm.