A review by balletbookworm
Isadora by Amelia Gray

3.0

There's an interesting novel in here, one about grief and loss and art, but it's bogged down by the style. The novel begins on the day that Isadora's children drown in a car accident in the Seine and spans the next 18 months or so told by a rotating cast of 4 characters - Paris Singer, Isadora's lover and father of her younger child, Elizabeth, Isadora's sister, Max, Elizabeth's lover (? Maybe) and a teacher at the Duncan school in Darmstadt, and Isadora herself. Now, the major snag here is that Isadora narrates in the first person and everyone else in a close third person POV, with some letters mixed in, and that makes it hell to read. Also, while some of Paris's sections were interesting absolutely none of Max's sections were worth reading, IMO. Isadora's sections are the strongest, and most beautiful, with Elizabeth's a perfect contrast as the sister always in the shadow. If I could take a knife, and snip out only these two narrators (and magically make Isadora's a close third POV) this would be a marvelous novel.