Love and Fame, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Something to Hide

Love and Fame is a typical Susie Boyt novel, full of wit, with clever and precise writing. The words just flow from the page. When asked the question "Like when people say make your hobby your job?" the answer is "Kind of. Maybe. Not sure. I might mean the opposite of that". There are times when discussions about anxiety and grief go on too long, but then a passage just over half way when a mother puts her sad daughter straight about the after effects of death is superb.

As the story progresses, so the intensity increases. A conversation between sisters was worth the price of the book alone. It would have made a great short story. I did prefer the author's "The Small Hours" but this was close.

Right from the start of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, our eighteen year old narrator, Mary Katherine Blackwood, seems strange. She hates the people in the village (but maybe not as much as they hate her family) as she carries out the shopping duties for her older sister Constance and her infirm Uncle Julian. This is the aftermath of a family disaster, most of whom are dead. Is Constance to blame?

This is a story about sibling love, one that is incredibly powerful. We learn a lot about what happened from Uncle Julian, whose mind falters at times, but at others is a sharp as a button. The descriptions of the Blackwood House and the village are particularly good. When a visitor arrives the book "descends" into uncomfortable territory, only to be somehow resolved before the end. These are sisters I wont forget in a hurry. 

I first read a Deborah Moggach novel five years ago when, what was her latest book, Heartbreak Hotel received good reviews. So working backwards on the nineteen titles she has published so far, next came In the Dark and then Final Demand. Avoiding the two books that have been made into movies (the excellent version of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the frightfully disappointing Tulip Fever) I found her latest novel Something to Hide to be typical of her writing. Not a literary masterpiece but she does tell a really good story. 

The first half is predominantly a romantic drama, although typically the characters are mature to say the least. Chapters skip from continent to continent as other stories evolve. The pace picks up half way through as the book enters mystery thriller territory, full of twists and turns with a very strange but enthralling road trip. I would normally have avoided a novel with partly an African setting, but this author concentrates on plot and relationships and this works quite well.