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claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1030 reviews
A Woman on the Edge of Time: A Son’s Search for His Mother by Jeremy Gavron
4.0
Not quite a memoir, nor a biography, nor autobiography, or perhaps all of these, and a detective story. I'm finding it difficult to work out why I found it compulsive reading, but I did. Jeremy Gavron doesn't really remember his mother, Hannah, - she kills herself when he is four - and only many years later does he finally decide to go looking for her. He tracks down everyone (it seems) who knew her and interviews them, and the resulting book is meticulous and moving. As it approached the end I was worried that Gavron wouldn't be able to come to any conclusion about why she committed suicide, or that he wouldn't be able to find the one person who might have some answers. But the ending is handled really well - of course he can't be conclusive, but he makes some logical guesses and he does meet the man. And then right at the end, there's a little unexpected twist.
My only niggle is the snippets of letters Hannah writes to her friend when they were both girls. Even Gavron at one point says they don't add much - they are the letters of one school girl to another. For me, they didn't add anything.
My only niggle is the snippets of letters Hannah writes to her friend when they were both girls. Even Gavron at one point says they don't add much - they are the letters of one school girl to another. For me, they didn't add anything.
All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard
3.0
I loved the first four books in the Cazalet series - so easy to read, all the characters and their times so interesting. I'm not so sure about this one. I kept being thrown out of the story by unnecessary repetitions, lots more 'telling' rather than 'showing', and some rather clunky writing. I still wanted to read it, wanted to know what happened to them all, it just wasn't as good as the rest. Perhaps it's just that it was written so long after them.
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
4.0
Very beautiful book about the relationship between mothers and daughters. Lovely writing. It came very close to getting five stars, but suffered because I read it quite soon after finishing Mothering Sunday, which although a very different book, also talks a lot about what makes writers become writers and I think Graham Swift did it slightly better.
And there were some very moving parts, which I didn't think Elizabeth Strout quite trusted the reader to get. Perhaps I wouldn't have got them all, but I didn't always like her pointing them out to me.
For example, there's a conversation between the narrator and her mother, where the narrator asks her mother if she loves her.
'When your eyes are closed,' she said.
'You love me when my eyes are closed?'
'When your eyes are closed,' she said.
The daughter is happy, but of course she never did get her mother to actually say the words, so it's also terribly sad too. I got that. But in the next paragraph the narrator says '...I feel that people may not understand that my mother could never say the words I love you...'
I just wasn't sure I wanted this pointed out to me. There are a few other instances of this.
But I'm being picky. The book was beautiful, sad and beautiful.
And there were some very moving parts, which I didn't think Elizabeth Strout quite trusted the reader to get. Perhaps I wouldn't have got them all, but I didn't always like her pointing them out to me.
For example, there's a conversation between the narrator and her mother, where the narrator asks her mother if she loves her.
'When your eyes are closed,' she said.
'You love me when my eyes are closed?'
'When your eyes are closed,' she said.
The daughter is happy, but of course she never did get her mother to actually say the words, so it's also terribly sad too. I got that. But in the next paragraph the narrator says '...I feel that people may not understand that my mother could never say the words I love you...'
I just wasn't sure I wanted this pointed out to me. There are a few other instances of this.
But I'm being picky. The book was beautiful, sad and beautiful.
The Light of Day by Graham Swift
3.0
Hmm, nicely written, but it was too long for the story. I think it would have worked best as a novela. Also it felt like Swift was trying to lead us along the path of a twist or a revelation as if was a crime genre novel but there wasn't one. I don't mind that there wasn't one, it's just the expectation that didn't work. I also had issues with the sensitive, thinking, feeling narrator, George, who was a policeman turned private detective. Of course there are sensitive, thinking, feeling private detectives, but I felt Swift was trying too hard with all the cooking stuff to make George that kind of man.
Ashenden by Elizabeth Wilhide
4.0
Loved this book. It works best as a collection of short stories linked by a house (and sometimes characters turning up again), rather than a novel, but that made it all the better for me. It was the early ones in the house's history that I enjoyed the most: the tragedy of the architect, Georgiana More's disgrace, and Dulcie, who finally learns to be happy. The history didn't weigh these pieces down - they were about people living out their lives at a certain time. The two book-ends and the story set in 1976 didn't work quite so well for me.
Some Country Houses and Their Owners by James Lee Milne, James Lee Milne
4.0
James Lees-Milne worked for the National Trust and during the 1930s and 1040s he visited many country houses whose owners were thinking about handing them on to the trust. The small book is extracts from his diaries organised by house rather than date. Lees-Milne is wonderfully observant, sometimes snide and very funny: "There were Mr Woodhouse, a little, dull old man with a flabby hand, [and] genial Lord Barrington with hairs growing out of his cheeks and ears..." "Luncheon consisted of one egg in a jacketed potato..."
I will definitely be buying and reading the full diaries.
I will definitely be buying and reading the full diaries.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
5.0
Oh so wonderful, writing, stories, characters, location. Just perfect. Olive Kitteridge is a difficult woman, but still I loved her, kind of became her, even when she was so peripheral in a chapter, and so in the 'story' where her son points out the kind of person he sees her as, I was as shocked as she is that other people see her in this way.
Some of the stories were perhaps slightly weaker than the others - the penultimate one about Rebecca stealing - for instance didn't touch me as deeply as the others.
Definitely a book I'd like to re-read.
Some of the stories were perhaps slightly weaker than the others - the penultimate one about Rebecca stealing - for instance didn't touch me as deeply as the others.
Definitely a book I'd like to re-read.
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
4.0
Gentle and lovely, but hasn't really stuck with me. One day just after the second world war when everything changed for the English who had once been able to afford cooks and maids. I have no idea how this cover came to be chosen...
Early One Morning by Virginia Baily
4.0
I loved the gradual unfolding of the story, the layers that were revealed - who Simone is, what has happened to Chiara's sister and of course Daniele. The descriptions of Rome and the Italian countryside were beautiful. My only problems with it were the very end, where I felt we got a sudden summary of the future, and when what happened to Daniele is revealed to both Chiara and Maria - somehow this didn't have the impact that might have been intended. These things are minor though - it is a very lovely book.