A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson

3.0

It's always risky to compare any book to "Possession" and in this case, as in so many, it's a disappointment--almost. Most of the novel is somewhat inert, with one narrator limited by her blindness and impending death, and the two modern participants just plain depressed. But then, in the last quarter, we get the kind of literary excitement and mystery that did indeed remind me of A. S. Byatt's wonderful novel. I suddenly wanted to know what had happened to Zina's family during the Revolution, and the Checkovs as well. But the rest of the book is very quiet--people fish, they translate, they worry about finances. I hope Alison Anderson can harness the excitement in the final pages of "The Summer Guest" and put it to work in her next work. 3.5 stars.