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A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
Hard to do something fresh with a British WWII story, but Quinn kept me engaged with her characters and their fortunes. Lots of beautiful turns of phrase as she depicts a crumbling manor, central character a plucky stagestruck orphan turned intelligence agent, bohemian artists passing through, Land Girls and music on the home front, a near-romance with a German soldier, Paris under the occupation ... it kept me turning the pages.
Although the pieces were enjoyable, by the end the vignettes began to fly by so fast that they became a bit superficial and shallow, not adding up to a completely satisfying whole. There also could have been more about the theatre for my taste; the titular entity spent most of the time offstage. Also welcome would have been to spend more time in the Paris theatre where Anouilh's Antigone was performed. It went by in a mere blip, but what a fascinating setting that would be.
Hard to do something fresh with a British WWII story, but Quinn kept me engaged with her characters and their fortunes. Lots of beautiful turns of phrase as she depicts a crumbling manor, central character a plucky stagestruck orphan turned intelligence agent, bohemian artists passing through, Land Girls and music on the home front, a near-romance with a German soldier, Paris under the occupation ... it kept me turning the pages.
Although the pieces were enjoyable, by the end the vignettes began to fly by so fast that they became a bit superficial and shallow, not adding up to a completely satisfying whole. There also could have been more about the theatre for my taste; the titular entity spent most of the time offstage. Also welcome would have been to spend more time in the Paris theatre where Anouilh's Antigone was performed. It went by in a mere blip, but what a fascinating setting that would be.