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A review by scarpuccia
The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
5.0
Two sisters fight for the love of the same man. Madeleine is the conventional sister, committed to the social etiquette of conventional society. She is married to Rickie and the mother of his children. Dinah is the younger rebellious sister, frequenting bohemian circles. She and Rickie begin a clandestine love affair.
This beautifully poetic novel is set in the 1930s and runs through to the London Blitz when the bomb-damaged landscape poignantly reflects the fragmented, morally clouded nature of domestic life.
The novel begins towards the end of the story when Madeleine and Dinah are reunited after years of not talking. Chronology jumps back and forwards echoing the attempts of the characters to get their moral bearings and piece back together the broken and charred shards of their lives. Lehmann, deftly eschewing any moral judgements, takes us inside the heads of all three characters and gives each a fair and tremendously eloquent hearing. At the end of the day Lehmann investigates not so much the progress of love as the damage it can do. Sometimes, the poetic prose is a little overdone but on the whole a brilliant and beautiful book.
This beautifully poetic novel is set in the 1930s and runs through to the London Blitz when the bomb-damaged landscape poignantly reflects the fragmented, morally clouded nature of domestic life.
The novel begins towards the end of the story when Madeleine and Dinah are reunited after years of not talking. Chronology jumps back and forwards echoing the attempts of the characters to get their moral bearings and piece back together the broken and charred shards of their lives. Lehmann, deftly eschewing any moral judgements, takes us inside the heads of all three characters and gives each a fair and tremendously eloquent hearing. At the end of the day Lehmann investigates not so much the progress of love as the damage it can do. Sometimes, the poetic prose is a little overdone but on the whole a brilliant and beautiful book.