I was very pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this book.
I found it an engaging and very different read, a picture of the time but with timeless observations on people. This is the story of a relationship of imperfect people, of settings beautifully described, of insightful portraits of people around her. It is honest in that it accepts that her writing is not easy, that her first book was good but her second novel was not, and that she may no longer be a “promising” young writer. This is a deeply personal narrative in which a flawed character tells her story, highlighting particular points, accepting the arguments and the misunderstandings. She loves her husband Simon Quinn, in many ways, realising that he is essentially different from the other men in their circle, though this is not always a good thing.Nevis is appalled by his family, especially his mother, whose social ambitions and attempts to run the lives of everyone are always apparent. Nevis Falconer, the narrator, also writes of the frustrations of daily life, the annoyances of her days ordering meals and dealing with the blocks to writing.
It speaks movingly of the joys to be found in London life, the evenings of bohemian existence, the streets, the journeys and the people that she meets.
Mollie Panter-Downes’ 1931 novel, now republished in the stylish British Library Woman Writers series, is a moving account of a young writer’s life in London. This is the story of a marriage, of a woman regarding her partner with brutal honesty, and of an acknowledgement of genuinely confused feelings.
0 kommentar(er)
