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nancyflanagan 's review for:
The Clockmaker's Daughter
by Kate Morton
I've read other Kate Morton books that were not as ambitious as this one. It felt, throughout, as if Morton were trying to up her game--to write a layered, connected, touch-of magic tale about a beautiful, mysterious home on a bend in the Thames. Morton seems to be saying that history is layered beneath us and around us (sometimes, literally) and it's up to us to pay attention to all the details. Reading Clockmaker's Daughter felt a bit like reading David Mitchell--everything is tied together, objects and places and souls. All Will Be Revealed.
So--this wasn't a quick read, or funny or light or chick-littish. It was history on history, with threads that ran through the house and the people who lived there, searched for peace and meaning there, and, alas, died there. If you've ever been in an old home that breathes, you'll know what I mean.
And because it was a book about the history--a long, 400+ yr history--of one house, it took time to unfold and was, occasionally, confounding. Not confusing--but the characters and their relationships to one another (and they're all related) took some mental effort to sort out, like a 1000-piece puzzle. I like Morton, but I liked this book more than most. It felt deeper and richer.
So--this wasn't a quick read, or funny or light or chick-littish. It was history on history, with threads that ran through the house and the people who lived there, searched for peace and meaning there, and, alas, died there. If you've ever been in an old home that breathes, you'll know what I mean.
And because it was a book about the history--a long, 400+ yr history--of one house, it took time to unfold and was, occasionally, confounding. Not confusing--but the characters and their relationships to one another (and they're all related) took some mental effort to sort out, like a 1000-piece puzzle. I like Morton, but I liked this book more than most. It felt deeper and richer.