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janine1122 's review for:
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
by Jonathan Evison
I'm honestly not sure exactly how I felt about this book. Overall, I enjoyed it. It was a quick read, and it was refreshingly different in its structure and tone.
The book jumps around a lot in terms of time period, starting with Harriet's birth, immediately followed by her in the present-day at age 78. The chapters continue to alternate time periods and landmark moments in Harriet's life throughout the rest of the novel.
I really loved the tone of the chapters that flashed back. They were written so differently from the chapters of her in the present -- even when they were offering glimpses into more tragic portions of her history, there was a lightness and playfulness to them. I think the fact that the entire book wasn't written in that way made them particularly impactful.
I guess my gripes come in a couple of forms. One was my confusion over Bernard's role in the story. While he was obviously an incredibly crucial part of Harriet's life story, his actual involvement to the story in the present day didn't make much sense to me, and I was unclear of the purpose that it served, and what exactly was going on with him.
The other is, while I really enjoyed Harriet's story, and the way that the flashbacks provided missing pieces to the puzzle of her life story, I wasn't sure what the reader was supposed to get out of them by the end. What is the point of knowing where you went wrong in life, if there's nothing that can be done about it?
I think overall I would have liked more of a sense of resolution, or just a more direct correlation between her past and it's implications on the present.
The book jumps around a lot in terms of time period, starting with Harriet's birth, immediately followed by her in the present-day at age 78. The chapters continue to alternate time periods and landmark moments in Harriet's life throughout the rest of the novel.
I really loved the tone of the chapters that flashed back. They were written so differently from the chapters of her in the present -- even when they were offering glimpses into more tragic portions of her history, there was a lightness and playfulness to them. I think the fact that the entire book wasn't written in that way made them particularly impactful.
I guess my gripes come in a couple of forms. One was my confusion over Bernard's role in the story. While he was obviously an incredibly crucial part of Harriet's life story, his actual involvement to the story in the present day didn't make much sense to me, and I was unclear of the purpose that it served, and what exactly was going on with him.
The other is, while I really enjoyed Harriet's story, and the way that the flashbacks provided missing pieces to the puzzle of her life story, I wasn't sure what the reader was supposed to get out of them by the end. What is the point of knowing where you went wrong in life, if there's nothing that can be done about it?
I think overall I would have liked more of a sense of resolution, or just a more direct correlation between her past and it's implications on the present.