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ailsabristow's review
2.0
I suppose that my main quibble with this novel is that I was expecting so much more: it is a perfectly enjoyable book but it wasn't 'remarkable' book that I was promised on the book jacket (note to self: why do I keep letting myself be drawn in by carefully selected and edited opinions?)
Anyway, I was in the mood for this book: it is set (partially) in post-Napoleonic Europe (tying in nicely to my previous read, The Volcano Lover) and promised an intriguing story that would breach time and space. Sadly, much though it tried, this novel didn't deliver. The connection between the 1820s and the 1970s was not strong enough; Anna's discovery of Stephen was incidental, it didn't really effect anything in her life; the stories were not interconnected enough to make the reading of two separate narratives worthwhile. Anna does not (once again, as the jacket says) become 'entangled' in Stephen's life: she reads his letters, thinks about them for a bit, then gets on with her own life. And fair enough, pretty believable for a fifteen year old girl with plenty of problems of her own to deal with, but not satisfying when that's the main conceit of the novel!
On top of this problem, the promised romance of the novel was just a bit thin. I was intrigued in the relationships set up, initially, especially in the details of Stephen's past (though these turned out to be very very predictable) but everything rattled along in the same old grooves that we have seen time and time again. The coming together of Lucy and Stephen was, I feel, the biggest let down of the book; up until that point I had really enjoyed her characterisation, her disregard for rules and society, her insistence on her own freedom. I could've even lived with it if she'd given Stephen a harder time for his (rapid onset- you could almost feel the author searching for a way to build tension) controlling streak, but unfortunately, it seems as though the author felt the best way to conclude this irregular heroine's interesting story was by pegging her in to a very tradtional happy ending. It jarred.
I have to say, I ended up enjoying the 1970s sections more and more as the book went on (maybe because of my interest in photography), and I thought the relationship between Anna and Theo (and to some extent, Eva) was interesting, especially as it introduced Anna to the spectrum of forms love can take. I only wish we had more of Eva and Theo's back story, especially what was tantalisingly hinted at in Eva and Theo's exchange on Eva's discovery of 'the affair'.
I suppose what I am saying *is* that this book had a lot of promise, and that there were glimmers of something more, but the payoff wasn't there, and that ultimately it descended into quite a conventional well-worn story, when I had hopes of reading something a bit more special.
Anyway, I was in the mood for this book: it is set (partially) in post-Napoleonic Europe (tying in nicely to my previous read, The Volcano Lover) and promised an intriguing story that would breach time and space. Sadly, much though it tried, this novel didn't deliver. The connection between the 1820s and the 1970s was not strong enough; Anna's discovery of Stephen was incidental, it didn't really effect anything in her life; the stories were not interconnected enough to make the reading of two separate narratives worthwhile. Anna does not (once again, as the jacket says) become 'entangled' in Stephen's life: she reads his letters, thinks about them for a bit, then gets on with her own life. And fair enough, pretty believable for a fifteen year old girl with plenty of problems of her own to deal with, but not satisfying when that's the main conceit of the novel!
On top of this problem, the promised romance of the novel was just a bit thin. I was intrigued in the relationships set up, initially, especially in the details of Stephen's past (though these turned out to be very very predictable) but everything rattled along in the same old grooves that we have seen time and time again. The coming together of Lucy and Stephen was, I feel, the biggest let down of the book; up until that point I had really enjoyed her characterisation, her disregard for rules and society, her insistence on her own freedom. I could've even lived with it if she'd given Stephen a harder time for his (rapid onset- you could almost feel the author searching for a way to build tension) controlling streak, but unfortunately, it seems as though the author felt the best way to conclude this irregular heroine's interesting story was by pegging her in to a very tradtional happy ending. It jarred.
I have to say, I ended up enjoying the 1970s sections more and more as the book went on (maybe because of my interest in photography), and I thought the relationship between Anna and Theo (and to some extent, Eva) was interesting, especially as it introduced Anna to the spectrum of forms love can take. I only wish we had more of Eva and Theo's back story, especially what was tantalisingly hinted at in Eva and Theo's exchange on Eva's discovery of 'the affair'.
I suppose what I am saying *is* that this book had a lot of promise, and that there were glimmers of something more, but the payoff wasn't there, and that ultimately it descended into quite a conventional well-worn story, when I had hopes of reading something a bit more special.
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