From Publishers Weekly
With her latest gothic page-turner, Beauman (Rebecca's Tale) weaves a spellbinding tale of three charismatic English sisters and their irresistible pull on the men in their orbit. At the novel's start, it's summer of 1967 in Suffolk, England, where the Mortlands—gorgeous Julia; intellectual Finn (both in their early 20s); odd, imaginative 13-year-old Maisie; and their mother, Stella—live in a medieval abbey. Maisie, who narrates early on, is haunted by the death of their father—and by the abbey's long-gone nuns. Stella commissions Lucas Feld, a starving young artist, to paint the sisters. Julia and Finn, along with Lucas, Daniel Nunn (the sisters' childhood friend) and Daniel's friend Nick Marlow, spend the summer entangled in affairs of the heart while Maisie observes. With his paint brush, Lucas uncannily captures the passion, heartbreak and mystery of the bittersweet summer. But a horrific tragedy, the details of which Beauman suspensefully reveals over the rest of the novel, destroys the summer idyll. Fast-forward to 1991: Lucas is now a famous artist whose breakthrough painting The Sisters Mortland will soon show at a retrospective, and Daniel, who narrates this section, is suffering a mid-life crisis and still obsessed with the events of that fateful summer. With a conclusion narrated by Julia, this well-paced, haunting novel will captivate Beauman's fans. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
My Thoughts:
Wow! This was a great story. You really feel compassion with the characters. The format of the story was excellent as well, with Maisie first, then Dan and a conclusion by Julia that ties most of it together. The ending leaves you feeling bereft initially, but upon reflection, you realize it couldn't have ended any other way. The ending fit the story, and it was more realistic than a "happily ever after" ending would have been.
Monday, March 13, 2006
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1 comment:
I just finished this and was searching for blog reviews. The novel has certainly elicited strong responses, both pro and con.
My own thoughts are that this a novelist worth paying attention to and that her skill at manipulating the reader without doing in a "precious" way is impressive.
After posting my own comments on my reading blog, I began looking for other readers. I've never done this before, and it is proving very interesting.
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