|
Great choice, Bookpossum.
I had a very difficult time with the first third of this book. I wanted to abandon it. It's very hard to read a book with a primary character as unlikeable as Nora. She was so persnickety and even less sympathetic than Francie Kavanagh, and initially, not very interesting either - the ultimate damnation for a character. She seemed determined to throw stones in her own path.
It was only as she started to work through her grief as she fashioned a new life while continuing to care for her children, and as her back history was simultaneously revealed that I got drawn into her story. Ultimately, I thought it was one of the best things I've read in a while.
Toibin's prose seems very plain, yet so descriptive. In Amadeus, Emperor Josef said that Mozart's score had "too many notes"; Toibin's prose has just as many words as are required.
|