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lisagray68's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
greybeard49's review against another edition
4.0
Moore writes really well. He has the knack of getting under the skin of his characters and being able to put the reader inside their heads. Understands and portrays female leads superbly. He is from Northern Ireland, as am I, and most of his work is set there in the period of 'The Troubles' which he pins down very well.
This novel essentially is the story of an affair between an older Irish woman and a younger American man. He describes the tangled feelings of the protagonists superbly and weaves a compelling and poignant story with an appropriate and excellent ending. A good reason for revisiting 'vintage' fiction!
This novel essentially is the story of an affair between an older Irish woman and a younger American man. He describes the tangled feelings of the protagonists superbly and weaves a compelling and poignant story with an appropriate and excellent ending. A good reason for revisiting 'vintage' fiction!
bgg616's review against another edition
4.0
Sheila Redden, 37 years old, goes to Paris on her way to a vacation in Nice. Her husband, Kevin, is a surgeon, and is planning to join her in Nice. It is the early 1970's and they live in Belfast with their 16 year old son. Kevin is reluctant to ever holiday outside of Ireland, but agrees to Nice, where they honeymooned 16 years before. In Paris, Sheila visits an old friend, and while there meets a man. We are unsure what she'll do and how far she will go with this flirtation. The contrast between her nightmares of Belfast, and sunny Nice are stark. Will she go back to that life? We are carried through events in the book not knowing until the final pages what her choice will be. This may seem an unexpected story from a male writer, but Moore is also the author of [b:The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|782982|The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|Brian Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478142847l/782982._SY75_.jpg|1111687]. He seems to know, and appreciate women -their inner lives, doubts, hopes and fears. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and years later remains relevant despite changes in the possibilities for women's lives.
boureemusique's review against another edition
4.0
I read this after remembering having read "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne." I decided I wanted to read more Moore, and this one looked intriguing. And how! There was explicit sex, which was amusing, as ever, but I also looked at the novel through a couple of critical lenses. This book is a coming of age story, can be looked at through the lens of feminism, and can be looked at from a post-colonial perspective, too. Tensions between the main characters reflect tensions between Ireland and England, Britain and France, and Europe and America. The end resolves just as it should, though maybe not as some romantics would hope. I always love a character who can find real independence.
clairewords's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting perspectives and thought provoking choices made by the author, in this account of a woman who goes on an anniversary holiday to Paris and the South of France, waiting for her husband to join her.
The distance and solitude heightens her feelings towards everything. She is at the beginning of developing a kind of resistance, even if that shows itself through what appears to be recklessness. She embraces it.
It reads like a kind of thriller, because she acts so out of convention, but the longer she does so, the more likely it seems like there is the possibility she might indeed be upending her life.
The reader believes she is hovering between two choices, the author having chosen in the early parts of the narrative to allow us access to her thoughts. The detail with which her encounters are shared and the response of her family to them, increase this duality.
I really enjoyed this, though I read with a certain level of distrust, not having liked at all what he did to his female character in [b:The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|782982|The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|Brian Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478142847l/782982._SY75_.jpg|1111687]. However, here, I had a sense almost of the author writing this in collaboration.
Yes, many people say he has an uncanny ability to get into the mind of a woman; I think that is so because he mined them for information and was interested in their minds.
More to come, still thinking on this one...
The distance and solitude heightens her feelings towards everything. She is at the beginning of developing a kind of resistance, even if that shows itself through what appears to be recklessness. She embraces it.
It reads like a kind of thriller, because she acts so out of convention, but the longer she does so, the more likely it seems like there is the possibility she might indeed be upending her life.
The reader believes she is hovering between two choices, the author having chosen in the early parts of the narrative to allow us access to her thoughts. The detail with which her encounters are shared and the response of her family to them, increase this duality.
I really enjoyed this, though I read with a certain level of distrust, not having liked at all what he did to his female character in [b:The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|782982|The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne|Brian Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478142847l/782982._SY75_.jpg|1111687]. However, here, I had a sense almost of the author writing this in collaboration.
Yes, many people say he has an uncanny ability to get into the mind of a woman; I think that is so because he mined them for information and was interested in their minds.
More to come, still thinking on this one...
readerstephen86's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The writing is pacy, there is tautly drawn suspense throughout (will-she-won't-she), and in uncluttered but precise prose it sets a moral dilemma that drew me in. The scenario is not one I would ever imagine for myself, nor condone in others, but Sheila is sympathetic, and I wanted her to find self-determination, even while it threatened hurt for all involved.
The places were drawn from life (I don't know Nice as well as the other three, but the latter were beamed straight onto the mind's eye in wonderfully too-bright mid-70s shades), and the pursuits had a filmic yet prosaic and relatable quality. It was also just fun. For all the cleverness of many Booker nominees, this was a book that would both be a good beach read, and give plenty of content (on its mere 278 pages in my copy) for a book club. Moore keeps the plot pacy, but also packs in plenty of detail (shakos; pétanique; curka na podvarku; the Panther Books imprint and namechecks for fellow-Booker nominees Muriel Spark, Kingsley Amis and Doris Lessing among others).
There's heart and heat to this book, which electrifies similar themes to those Iris Murdoch (another Booker nominee I'm reading) deals with in her philosophically-themed novels. Murdoch's cold precision is admirable, but I have yet not got beyond a 4 because of the chilly depersonalised logic that freezes out total love. Moore runs hot and cold, and every word felt like I could have been listening in from a shop front doorway or hotel lobby.
The places were drawn from life (I don't know Nice as well as the other three, but the latter were beamed straight onto the mind's eye in wonderfully too-bright mid-70s shades), and the pursuits had a filmic yet prosaic and relatable quality. It was also just fun. For all the cleverness of many Booker nominees, this was a book that would both be a good beach read, and give plenty of content (on its mere 278 pages in my copy) for a book club. Moore keeps the plot pacy, but also packs in plenty of detail (shakos; pétanique; curka na podvarku; the Panther Books imprint and namechecks for fellow-Booker nominees Muriel Spark, Kingsley Amis and Doris Lessing among others).
There's heart and heat to this book, which electrifies similar themes to those Iris Murdoch (another Booker nominee I'm reading) deals with in her philosophically-themed novels. Murdoch's cold precision is admirable, but I have yet not got beyond a 4 because of the chilly depersonalised logic that freezes out total love. Moore runs hot and cold, and every word felt like I could have been listening in from a shop front doorway or hotel lobby.
cq2's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Very much an "Irish" book, set in an Ireland that resonates—repressed, particularly for women, an emotionally stifling society. Yet also a hopeful tone. Love for Moore makes the characters, male and female, so alive to the reader.
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