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dimitypee 's review for:
The Bolter
by Frances Osborne
Frances Osbourne has a great knack for writing because I didn't finish this book based on the story alone. I guess I'm just getting a little beyond the whole "rich white woman delights in African mystery" theme, especially after enduring [b:Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass|26474|Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass|Karen Blixen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167810664s/26474.jpg|1382759] (although I did dig the movie). I have a really hard time sympathizing with rich protagonists like Idina Sackville and I don't really understand the author's shock and indignation at Sackville's abandonment of her first two sons in England. As I understand it, most aristocratic English families at the time practiced very little hands-on parenting anyhow. As a descendant, the author is personally invested in this story but I found the tone of moral outrage throughout the book to be out of place for the historical context. Would it really have been so much more acceptable for her to have stayed in England and seen her sons several times a year on vacation from boarding school?
I think there's a more interesting story to be told with the next generation-namely how both her sons and 2 of their 3 half brothers were killed in WWII-once I saw the family tree, I couldn't get that out of my head.
I think there's a more interesting story to be told with the next generation-namely how both her sons and 2 of their 3 half brothers were killed in WWII-once I saw the family tree, I couldn't get that out of my head.