claire_fuller_writer's reviews
1030 reviews

Really powerful story about labour, and why Lore is delivering her baby alone, and the worries the midwife has both for the woman she is looking after, and herself. It was the most perfect (and excruciating) description of pain I've ever read.

Highly recommended, but perhaps, if you're pregnant, only read it after you've delivered.

3.5 stars for the book because I wanted to find out what happened, but 0 stars for the copyediting. A very readable book, that kept me wanting to know what happened, although because of the structure - just a chapter on each person involved in a plane crash, by the time I found out what happened, I wasn't too bothered because I didn't feel I knew the characters very well. The writing was good in a thriller-y way.

But I was shocked at the poor copyediting, which did put me off the whole thing. Even on the last page Scott (the protagonist) 'gets up' from his chair, and then a few lines further on he 'gets up' again. On the penultimate page of the prologue the word 'flush' is used 4 times. Magnus lives in an old shoe factory in one chapter, and a condemned paint warehouse in another. And on and on...

3.5 stars. There was much to like in this: the story told from a female point of view in a male dominated society, the unusual descriptions of nature, but I just didn't feel it the way I think I was supposed to feel it. I wasn't scared by anyone or worried about what might happen to the protagonist. And the ending was a bit neat. (I'd recommend the film though.)

I first read this in about 2005 as a library book, before I'd ever thought about being a writer myself, and I absolutely loved it. It was one of those books that made me want to see if I could write (not sure that I'll ever achieve this though). Since then I've often looked for it bookshops but never found it, and then a month or so ago I decided to order it from my local indie bookshop, and although I have two other books on the go, I had to start it as soon as it arrived. And I still love it just as much. Each story is perfect in their own way: the writing, the plots, where they end, the characters. All of them... well okay, I still have my standout favourites: Pilgrims, and The Isabel Fish, but there really isn't a duff story in the whole collection.

Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed the clear, sparse writing, and the descriptions of the landscape, especially towards the end of the book. It was in the final third that it really picked up for me, even though sometimes I felt I wanted more focus on particular characters. The horrors of what happened in the Ukranian town were very well handled - perfectly underplayed so that much was left to my imagination. But early in the novel I felt like the tension was a little lacking, with a lot of time spent with not much happening. I have the feeling though that this book will definitely stick in my head and maybe I'll come to like it even more.

This is a story that needs to be told, but I just don't feel it was told that well in terms of story, character or writing. Not one for me.

Very intense coming of age story of a sixteen year old boy and his relationship with a neighbouring friend, his family, and most especially the boy's father. All of the pared-back writing is cut through with a feeling of menace and brilliantly uncomfortable tension.

I'm still having a bit of a William Trevor binge - both his novels and his short stories. And this, his second novel (his first he disowned and wouldn't have republished) is definitely his weakest of those I've read. All the characters are dislikeable, although that didn't worry me, but they often read like caricatures written for jokes which went on a bit too long. It wasn't a chore to get to the end, but I wouldn't recommend it.