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tanja_alina_berg 's review for:
The Wheel of Fortune
by Susan Howatch
Wohoo! I'm done! I read all of it! Of course, it was a total drag from about half way through so I'm not sure this is such a marvellous achievement. I did not like this at all as much as some of the other books I've read by Susan Howatch. However, I read those when I was in my twenties and far more easily impressed than I am now.
The book tells the story of the grand old estate of Oxmoon, and the people on it. It is a family saga spanning several generations, starting at the end of the 20th century, and told through several first-person voices. They are quite different and by the end of each I was glad there was another to move on to. It is a story of failed love, failed grandeur and most of all, men failing to draw the line.
This line is a returning theme. I don't know how many times one of the characters exclaimed "here I draw the line!" and thus attempting to do the done thing again. There is plenty of sibling rivalry, mostly in regards to who would get to inherit Oxmoon.
My biggest problem with this book is how I didn't really understand what the author was trying to say. It was just a very, very long book getting at very little. It's well-written and all, but there's no great mystery to solve (just several smaller ones) and little forward tension. It took me almost two weeks to finish, and normally I would have read twice as many pages in the same time. I'm glad it's not sitting on my shelf whispering "read me" anymore. It won't be kept as a friend either though, will be relegated to the back-row of a shelf and quietly forgotten.
The book tells the story of the grand old estate of Oxmoon, and the people on it. It is a family saga spanning several generations, starting at the end of the 20th century, and told through several first-person voices. They are quite different and by the end of each I was glad there was another to move on to. It is a story of failed love, failed grandeur and most of all, men failing to draw the line.
This line is a returning theme. I don't know how many times one of the characters exclaimed "here I draw the line!" and thus attempting to do the done thing again. There is plenty of sibling rivalry, mostly in regards to who would get to inherit Oxmoon.
My biggest problem with this book is how I didn't really understand what the author was trying to say. It was just a very, very long book getting at very little. It's well-written and all, but there's no great mystery to solve (just several smaller ones) and little forward tension. It took me almost two weeks to finish, and normally I would have read twice as many pages in the same time. I'm glad it's not sitting on my shelf whispering "read me" anymore. It won't be kept as a friend either though, will be relegated to the back-row of a shelf and quietly forgotten.