In the end, this is the worst kind of thriller, the worst kind of ending. Just so there is more money in a sequel. There are moments that are so implausible I wanted to shout out loud. Then the back cover refers to an incident that happens TWO THIRDS THROUGH! The chapters that alternate between Alice and Lucy would have been clever if they had not been done a hundred times before. Very disappointing.
Despite the many rave reviews of Sally Rooney's first novel "Conversations with Friends", I was not that impressed. Her latest book, however, is quite exceptional, and deserved the 2018 Costa Novel Award. It is intelligent, accessible, emotional, funny and brilliantly modern. A forensic study into the ups and downs of the relationship between Connell and Marianne.
Their final year at school is followed by their time at Trinity College, Dublin. Those times they are not together, their lives seemed to be lived in a different key. Sometimes I would put the book down and shake my head as I couldn't bang theirs together. A complicated relationship that should have been so simple. As they get older the narrative becomes more and more powerful. Some of the dialogue is so intense it actually made me quite nervous. Maybe I should read "Conversations with Friends" again.
Working my way backwards through all Ann Patchett's novels, I arrived at this, her first. After a slow start, the story develops into something fascinating as Rose settles into life at St Elizabeths. The people there are convincing and interesting. However at nearly half way through I wondered where the story would go. In fact we get a change of narrator which I found at first a boring backstory.
Again, the momentum picks up back at St Elizabeths and continues through the remainder of the book. Some of the conversations are quite brilliant. We know from later novels that Ann Patchett can write superb dialogue, and her first novel is no exception. "But I do remember. There's a recorder turned on somewhere inside me. Everything stays".
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