A review by agjuba
China Court: The Hours of a Country House by Rumer Godden

4.0

I love rambling family sagas, especially those set in England; so this book did not disappoint on that front. Other reviewers have been critical of the rambling, time-shifting narrative, but I enjoyed the novel's structure, and bought into the author's assertion that meeting a large family takes time to distinguish who is who. To me, the entire family was revealed much as one peels the layers of an onion.

I am critical, however, of the ending -- not only was it jarring (and disturbing), it felt abrupt in a manner was was entirely at odds with the meandering pace of the rest of the novel.