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laurieb755 's review for:
Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
by Anne Glenconner
This was the second book my Aunt purchased to tide her over the hump till her local library reopens. I am pleased to say that our library reopened yesterday for picking up books that had been on reserve, and there is now a stash of five books awaiting me on a table in our living room.
Meanwhile, I read this book. At first it was slow going; nothing interested me and some of Anne Glenconner's early anecdotes, particularly the ones about her honeymoon, rather repulsed me. However, slowly I became curious to know how her story would turn out.
If ever it was true that truth is stranger than fiction, her story would fill that bill perfectly. Therein lied the fascination and the absurdity. The author is the same age as my Aunt, so I could relate to that aspect of her, but the rest of her life experience was in a financial, social, and cultural realm that I will gladly never know. While fascinated (or maybe simply agog) at the excesses of much of her life, and the absurdity of some of the characters, I also felt sorry for the intense downsides she experienced.
Glenconner's writing is fairly simple and for much of her story she seemed detached from what she was telling, or perhaps just stoic. By the time she relayed the events of the second part of the book, however, the experiences - and the retelling of them - seemed to give her permission to drop some of that stoicness. Several times in the book she mentions how women of her generation were raised, and that cultural influence helped her to whether multiple familial hardships. I was glad that as she grew older, she seemed willing to drop some of that "stiff upper lip" and be present with her emotions.
Meanwhile, I read this book. At first it was slow going; nothing interested me and some of Anne Glenconner's early anecdotes, particularly the ones about her honeymoon, rather repulsed me. However, slowly I became curious to know how her story would turn out.
If ever it was true that truth is stranger than fiction, her story would fill that bill perfectly. Therein lied the fascination and the absurdity. The author is the same age as my Aunt, so I could relate to that aspect of her, but the rest of her life experience was in a financial, social, and cultural realm that I will gladly never know. While fascinated (or maybe simply agog) at the excesses of much of her life, and the absurdity of some of the characters, I also felt sorry for the intense downsides she experienced.
Glenconner's writing is fairly simple and for much of her story she seemed detached from what she was telling, or perhaps just stoic. By the time she relayed the events of the second part of the book, however, the experiences - and the retelling of them - seemed to give her permission to drop some of that stoicness. Several times in the book she mentions how women of her generation were raised, and that cultural influence helped her to whether multiple familial hardships. I was glad that as she grew older, she seemed willing to drop some of that "stiff upper lip" and be present with her emotions.