Flora and Nan have returned to their quaint
seaside town in England to care for their father, Gil, after he took a bad fall
- turns out he is much more ill than they had imagined. Gil, a literary icon
has never truly recovered from his wife’s disappearance twelve years earlier. Ingrid
had been a loving mother and adoring wife but her inner demons and long held
secrets emerge in a series of letters Gil finds hidden in his massive book
collection. The story alternates the present day with letters describing the
past and the real story of Ingrid and Gil. Young beautiful student enamored by
older successful professor – becomes pregnant – enters shaky marriage and
sacrifices her future. Ingrid has no support, no family. She craves love and
attention. Their bohemian lifestyle and her dependence on him is suffocating his
creative genius. When 12 years later he imagines seeing her through the
bookstore window, the daughters, though skeptical, want to believe their mother
loved them enough to return. I recommend this book purely for the captivating
writing and style in which it is presented. I loved the manner in which the letters
told the story. I was slightly bored at times through the repetitive
swimming/ocean/beach descriptions. It is slow paced and little actually happens
but the characters were interesting and it easily held me until the end. I
guess I’m on the fence with this one but I would most certainly read this
author again.
No comments:
Post a Comment