An Excuse for a Nice Sit Down and a Glass of Something: FlossieT's book

[CocoDeBearisCocoDeBear]

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Try again... put this in the wrong thread first time round!!

So Coco suggested we start with a few comments about why we picked our books. Mine isn't one I would have picked off the shelf either, but it was reviewed in the Grauniad and sounded interesting.

I particularly liked the way the relationships play out between the characters, and also that it has the relatively rare talent of keeping you interested and engaged with characters that at times can be very easy to dislike.

Finished it now, ended up reading a couple of chapters during ds's nap time & then finished the rest of it in one go that night!

I can't put my finger on it but there was something about this book that really engaged me. Like Flossie said, it could be really easy to dislike the characters but there is an element there that helps you to sympathise with them. I really liked how Emilia's relationship with William slowly grew and you could see the effect he was having on her as it developed but she couldn't.

Anyway, thanks Flossie!

I kind of wished she hadn't made Caroline (is that her name? The ex-wife anyway) such an evil stereotype as it makes it much harder to swallow the deus-ex-machina scene near the end where she offers her professional opinion to exonerate Emilia. That scene with the drawing in the nursery felt like a step too far - just too evil to be believable!

mmm, see what you mean, she was quite stereotypical but I guess she had to be so that would be a cause of the problems for Emilia & her husband.

Also meant to say that the first couple of chapters were almost over descriptive, everything was like something but after that she seemed to settle into it a bit more.

Yes, I found the first couple of chapters harder going than the rest - also that upmarket New Yorker thing of describing clothes and possessions in great detail, especially all the designer labels! Just finished a Jay McInerney that did this ad nauseam.

I enjoyed this, Flossie. It was very readable.

The only real criticism I have is that nobosy seemed especially bothered that Emilia had just lost her child! Surely her experience is pretty much THE most devastating thing that could have happened, but the ex-wife and ex-wife's nanny had little empathy ("she is sick to death of these Americans and their self-important histrionics... she wishes we had some real problems" , even the husband seemed to think Emilia should be 'back to normal' and was moaning about the constant takeaways. There was also an assumption that the Emilia character should really have been back at work. The baby had only been dead three months! Her own mother barely referred to her loss, just saying 'You'll feel better in time'.

I'm sorry, but my DD2 was very sick at birth, and we thought we might lose her, and even though she thankfully lived we were all completed floored by it. So I found it unbelievable in that respect, because if my DD2 had not made it I would have been in a significantly worse state than Emilia.

As suggested on the original swap thread... here are the initials of this book's title to help the confused!

L. a. O. I. P.

I feel that I didn't enjoy it as much as other people seem to have.

I found the writing very clunky (if that makes sense?) and no-one seemed to care about anyone else much.

That child screamed Aspergers until the very end when he said the angel was for her, and yes, I know he was advanced, but seriously - reading himself The Amber Spyglass at 5?? That kid would have gotten into any poncey school he wanted if he was that bright.

I liked the concept, but just felt it read like someone who is more suited to writing the self-reflective type columns in the paper

The thing I like about this swap is though, rather than just thinking "I don't like it", I do actually analyse why I don't like it. And I am so bloody stubborn I will read every book til the end