cariola119 has commented on (3) products.

On Chesil Beach: A Novel by Ian McEwan

cariola119, August 2, 2007

From the reviews I had read, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this book, although I am a big fan of McEwan's work. How much can one really say about a failed wedding night? But On Chesil Beach is so much more than that. It's a study of a moment in time--not just Edward and Florence's wedding night, but the more innocent (or more restrictive, depending on your point of view) world of the 1960s. It's about love, expectations, dreams, what we feel and what we cannot say, and our penchant for lingering over what might have been. I can't say that this is my favorite McEwan novel, but I was surprised by how it kept me engaged--and by how long it stayed with me once I had finished reading.

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Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.) by Clare Morrall

cariola119, July 31, 2007

Morrall creates a stunnningly realistic portrait of a woman torn apart by depression and identity crisis. Having lost her baby and the ability to have another, Kitty Maitland seems alienated from the world around her. Her husband lives in the flat next door, and her father and four brothers treat her as if she were seven years old. Kitty's non-motherhood sends her into a swirl of colors that define her changing state of mind. As she struggles to deal with the lost identity on which her hopes had depended, Kitty begins to question her own past, particularly her relationship with the mother she barely remembers.

I raced through this book in two days and can't wait to read more novels by Clare Morrall. Her writing is spare but beautiful, the story is original and engaging, and she creates a character that will linger in your memory.

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Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets

cariola119, August 29, 2006

Without a doubt, the best book I read all summer--I've been recommending it to everyone. Despite the subtitle, Morgan's novel focuses not so much on the Romantic poets as on the women in the their lives: Mary Shelley (Frankenstein author and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley); Lady Caroline Lamb (Byron's one-time lover and mad stalker); Augusta Leigh (Byron's half-sister and lover); and Fanny Brawne (Keats's fiancee). The novel moves smoothly from one woman's point of view to another's, with several intriguing intersections. Featured in secondary roles are Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary Shelley's mother) and Claire Clairemont, who was Mary Shelley's stepsister, Byron's lover and the mother of his child, and, Morgan hints, possibly Percy Shelley's lover as well. Unlike many novels set amongst the Romantics, this one avoids the gothic and the overly dramatic. Morgan creates realistic, intelligent women, and his style is graceful and comepelling. A fascinating read!

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