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A review by hayleybeale
Trio by William Boyd
3.0
Back in the 1980's, Martin, Julian, and Ian were the golden boys of British upper middle brow literature, but William Boyd was there too, publishing a steady stream of good and sometimes excellent novels, but somehow missing out on the adulation the others received. I haven't read anything of his for ages, so when I came across his latest, I was excited to give it a go. It didn't disappoint, but it didn't thrill either.
It's 1968 and the novel follows three people connected with the making of the very sixties movie Emily Bracegirdle and Her Amazing Ladder to the Moon. The wife of the director, Elfrida is an alcoholic author, often referred to as the next Virginia Woolf, who has had writer's block for ten years. The producer, Talbot Kydd is a closeted gay man. Anny Viklund is the American star of the movie who is being pursued by her ex-husband, a domestic terrorist. Though set in this most tumultuous year, the external events don't really impinge on the characters, though each of them experiences their own upheavals.
Smart, funny, and intelligent but I didn't really feel that engaged. I started out with this as an audiobook but didn't like the narrator or pacing so finished it off in print.
It's 1968 and the novel follows three people connected with the making of the very sixties movie Emily Bracegirdle and Her Amazing Ladder to the Moon. The wife of the director, Elfrida is an alcoholic author, often referred to as the next Virginia Woolf, who has had writer's block for ten years. The producer, Talbot Kydd is a closeted gay man. Anny Viklund is the American star of the movie who is being pursued by her ex-husband, a domestic terrorist. Though set in this most tumultuous year, the external events don't really impinge on the characters, though each of them experiences their own upheavals.
Smart, funny, and intelligent but I didn't really feel that engaged. I started out with this as an audiobook but didn't like the narrator or pacing so finished it off in print.