This story focuses on three adult sisters and their brother, who meet up at their grandparents' country home for their annual holiday of three weeks. This may the last summer they all have together in this house, as they may need to sell it. Naturally, with even the closest of siblings, there are bound to be tensions.
The summary of the book via Goodreads says, "With uncanny precision and extraordinary sympathy, Tessa Hadley charts the squalls of lust and envy disrupting this ill-assorted house party, as well as the consolations of memory and affection, the beauty of the natural world, the shifting of history under the social surface. From the first page the reader is absorbed and enthralled, watching a superb craftsperson unfold the lives of these unforgettable siblings."
Admittedly, I didn't love this book. I kept turning the pages because I was curious if anything was really going to happen in the story (perhaps a startling revelation from one of the characters? A tragic secret?), but it was hard for me to care about any of the characters. The writing style is interesting, but for me, the characters . . . weren't. The sister who seems to have some kind of inner turmoil and secrets isn't that compelling, and the one sister who seems to always be dramatically saying this and that wasn't compelling to me, either. There isn't much of a plot, so the book is basically just these people interacting with each other (although there is a middle section that is set in the past).
I can see where some readers really respond to this author's writing style, but I'm not one of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment