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sungmemoonstruck 's review for:
The Improbability of Love
by Hannah Rothschild
When Annie, an aspiring chef who's moved to London after a bad breakup, discovers a priceless painting in a junk shop, she's plunged into a world of intrigue, danger, and colorful characters including an exiled Russian titan, a scheming art dealer, and a penniless earl. Except it's unclear how all these characters are supposed to be integrated into the plot.
The Improbability of Love feels a bit like the literary equivalent of one of those people who tries to take full advantage of the salad bar and stuffs so many different foodstuffs in there that the salad actually doesn't taste very good. There's just too many characters and too many kinds of stories for the book to really come together as a cohesive whole. Many of these choices would be interesting on their own, like Barty, the socialite who makes his living by teaching wealthy expatriates how best to spend their money, or the decision to have the painting occasionally narrate a chapter. Together, however, the book shifts restlessly from plot to plot and nothing really seems to get enough attention and development. The writing also has an unfortunate habit of telling and not showing the reader, and many of the characters seem underdeveloped and thin as a result. We're told over and over that one character is in love with the other but never why . Ultimately, an intriguing premise but rather disappointing.
The Improbability of Love feels a bit like the literary equivalent of one of those people who tries to take full advantage of the salad bar and stuffs so many different foodstuffs in there that the salad actually doesn't taste very good. There's just too many characters and too many kinds of stories for the book to really come together as a cohesive whole. Many of these choices would be interesting on their own, like Barty, the socialite who makes his living by teaching wealthy expatriates how best to spend their money, or the decision to have the painting occasionally narrate a chapter. Together, however, the book shifts restlessly from plot to plot and nothing really seems to get enough attention and development. The writing also has an unfortunate habit of telling and not showing the reader, and many of the characters seem underdeveloped and thin as a result. We're told over and over that one character is in love with the other but never why . Ultimately, an intriguing premise but rather disappointing.