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A review by natashamontgomery
Restoration by Rose Tremain
2.0
[2.5 stars]
I was so very excited by Rose Tremain's work (before having read anything from her bibliography) and chose Restoration as the first step to my preconceived love of her work. I was disappointed. Nothing quite significant actually happens in this book, Tremain relies upon her development of the protagonist, Merivel, to keep the plot interesting when the plot is far from interesting. Luckily, Merivel is a brilliant character with such a charismatic voice (that Tremain writes incredibly well) but his journey is rather tedious and I found myself waiting and waiting for the book to finally envelop me but, alas, the moment never came. I must say Tremain's character development and writing style really saves this novel from being on my 'time-waster' shelf on Goodreads. I am very conflicted as to whether to pick up more from this author or just abandon her (wow, that sounds dramatic). I hope that maybe this just wasn't to my taste and her other works are much better but do I take the risk?
To add, although predictable, the events do have meaning and Merivel's journey is very important to his own sanity but, still, for the majority of the book I was not engaged and was counting down pages to the end of every chapter (not a good sign).
I was so very excited by Rose Tremain's work (before having read anything from her bibliography) and chose Restoration as the first step to my preconceived love of her work. I was disappointed. Nothing quite significant actually happens in this book, Tremain relies upon her development of the protagonist, Merivel, to keep the plot interesting when the plot is far from interesting. Luckily, Merivel is a brilliant character with such a charismatic voice (that Tremain writes incredibly well) but his journey is rather tedious and I found myself waiting and waiting for the book to finally envelop me but, alas, the moment never came. I must say Tremain's character development and writing style really saves this novel from being on my 'time-waster' shelf on Goodreads. I am very conflicted as to whether to pick up more from this author or just abandon her (wow, that sounds dramatic). I hope that maybe this just wasn't to my taste and her other works are much better but do I take the risk?
To add, although predictable, the events do have meaning and Merivel's journey is very important to his own sanity but, still, for the majority of the book I was not engaged and was counting down pages to the end of every chapter (not a good sign).