kab11's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kiwi_zoe's review
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
veelaughtland's review
4.0
A book about sex during wartime, and a refreshing insight into women's lives during wartime that isn't entirely focused on working towards the war effort and keeping the home.
The protagonist Deborah is both wonderful and hateful, a really divisive character who I adored reading about. She begins the novel having some kind of moral code, but as she makes the move to London to work (under the guise that it will benefit her child more than having her at home), she begins to fall into affair after affair after affair - and her fall is brilliant.
The ending was not what I expected, and was darkly comic which I really appreciated, and overall I thought this was great fun. I'll definitely be checking out Marghanita Laski's other work.
The protagonist Deborah is both wonderful and hateful, a really divisive character who I adored reading about. She begins the novel having some kind of moral code, but as she makes the move to London to work (under the guise that it will benefit her child more than having her at home), she begins to fall into affair after affair after affair - and her fall is brilliant.
The ending was not what I expected, and was darkly comic which I really appreciated, and overall I thought this was great fun. I'll definitely be checking out Marghanita Laski's other work.
drannieg's review
4.0
Rather gorgeous, highly evocative, and how nice to read something contemporary from the 1940s which reminds us that it wasn't all blitz spirit and make do, but gives a more nuanced depiction of women's lives. *stares hard at current lazy evocations of war spirit blah blah brexit blah Boris blah boring blah*
msmandrake's review
4.0
I had no idea what to expect with this book, and I never had a clue what was going to happen next or how it was going to end, which is such a rare experience. I'm sure this was quite shocking at the time it was published. The main character, Deborah, is dreadful, but the author quite skillfully keeps her from becoming too dreadful to not care about. It's also quite funny.
sweet_ness's review
dark
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
verityw's review
5.0
I loved this so much. So much.
Deborah, our protagonist, is dreadful. She's a terrible, terrible person but you just can't stop reading about her. At the start of the book, she and her husband Graham are in bed together ahead of his departure to Cairo to do war work. On the very first page Graham says he can't promise to be physically faithful, but promises not to fall in love and not to sleep with anyone who might fill her place in his life. He asks her to promise the same. But Deborah doesn't take him up on this offer - instead she swears that she will be faithful to him and to not act on any attraction she feels to another man. Deborah does not keep her promise...
In fact Deborah is a mistress of self-justification and can pretty much turn any situation around so that in her head she can justify what it is that she wants to do as being right. Soon after Graham's departure she's bored in the countryside and decides that the best thing for her would be to move to London and get a war job, leaving behind her son with the housekeeper come nanny - because this would make him happier because although he'll see less of her, he'll only see the best of his mother. Thus the tone of Deborah's self-delusion is set.
I think Deborah is pretty much impossible to like, but instead you're fascinated by her progress as she slowly abandons all her standards and rules and manages to rationalism absolutely anything if it means she can do exactly as she wants and to try and get the glamorous life that she thinks she deserves.
Deborah is all the worst traits of Calypso from the Camomile Lawn and Louise and Zoe from the Cazalet Chronicles and it makes her adventures compulsively readable.
Deborah, our protagonist, is dreadful. She's a terrible, terrible person but you just can't stop reading about her. At the start of the book, she and her husband Graham are in bed together ahead of his departure to Cairo to do war work. On the very first page Graham says he can't promise to be physically faithful, but promises not to fall in love and not to sleep with anyone who might fill her place in his life. He asks her to promise the same. But Deborah doesn't take him up on this offer - instead she swears that she will be faithful to him and to not act on any attraction she feels to another man. Deborah does not keep her promise...
In fact Deborah is a mistress of self-justification and can pretty much turn any situation around so that in her head she can justify what it is that she wants to do as being right. Soon after Graham's departure she's bored in the countryside and decides that the best thing for her would be to move to London and get a war job, leaving behind her son with the housekeeper come nanny - because this would make him happier because although he'll see less of her, he'll only see the best of his mother. Thus the tone of Deborah's self-delusion is set.
I think Deborah is pretty much impossible to like, but instead you're fascinated by her progress as she slowly abandons all her standards and rules and manages to rationalism absolutely anything if it means she can do exactly as she wants and to try and get the glamorous life that she thinks she deserves.
Deborah is all the worst traits of Calypso from the Camomile Lawn and Louise and Zoe from the Cazalet Chronicles and it makes her adventures compulsively readable.
funaek's review
3.0
Easy to get sucked into this one but it was kind of hard being in this toxic person's head for so long. Made me feel extra anxious.
jemimahorne's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0