damopedro's review against another edition
3.0
Dude can write. If do 3.5 stars if that was possible on this site.
aedd's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
twentystitches's review against another edition
relaxing
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
3.5
thebookroost's review against another edition
3.0
Immediately from the first chapter I was intrigued, not so much that it captured me straight away but enough that it got me curious. There is already a hint that Anne is keeping a secret about her past, moving cities, changing names that isn’t a normal thing to do so this got me curious, was it a good or bad past she had to hide I wanted to know.
The way we are introduced to Anne and Roland I quite enjoyed. I could almost feel I was standing waiting at the cold wet train station with Anne and her conversation with Roland in the van reminded me of those awkward and forced conversations we all try to have with Taxi drivers whenever we get in a Taxi. I thought this attention to detail was brilliant, I really felt like I was there in that moment with Anne and Roland.
It is not long before the relationship between Anne and Hartman begins to blossom, the issue is that he is married. The issue I have with this is that it seems to be a dance the two of them have in the book, a flirtatious dance. There are times in the book I feel sorry for Anne and then at times I don’t because she is becoming more and more friendly with a married man. There was a line in the book that really got me, it was:
“It’s not a perfect arrangement for you. But that’s not your fault and it’s not mine. It’s the fault of small-town society where people have nothing better to do than gossip and lie about each other.”
This section really annoyed me to say the least. It is clear that the intention of Hartman is more than that of just a friend and of course with all of the sneaking around the town he and Anne do off course the towns people will gossip if they found out. The way this is written seems like he is trying to shift the blame from himself for making Anne feel nervous and uncomfortable with lying by essentially saying that if the town people were more open minded we wouldn’t have to sneak around. Well no Hartman, if you were honest and had spoken to your wife and had not hidden this from her and had made the decision jointly to help Anne out with her housing situation then it might be a different story. Even if Hartman did have good intentions and was not interested in Anne in a romantic way, this action just makes me distrust his character immensely.
Towards the end of the book when Hartman and Anne parted ways, I almost felt sorry for them both. Anne begging Hartman to stay with her I found pathetic, and sad. Although I felt the tiniest bit sorry for her, she knew he was a married man and yet continued on in the delusion that he would be with her and leave his wife for her. In the end I believe wholeheartedly that Hartman was the sole cause of Anne’s sadness and he was the instigator of the relationship. In the end he did the right thing and let Anne go for the sake of his wife and marriage but at what cost? Anne was depressed and the wife knew of Hartmans indiscretions, I don’t know what’s worse.
All in all I did enjoy the book, it’s not something I would rush to re-read but I will definitely read another of Sebastian Faulks works. I’m sure there were more important aspects and undertones of the book that I have completely ignored for the purposes of my review but the fact that he got me thinking about the relationship and it made me feel annoyed and angry at the characters I think just shows his writing got under my skin and that isn’t a bad thing.
The way we are introduced to Anne and Roland I quite enjoyed. I could almost feel I was standing waiting at the cold wet train station with Anne and her conversation with Roland in the van reminded me of those awkward and forced conversations we all try to have with Taxi drivers whenever we get in a Taxi. I thought this attention to detail was brilliant, I really felt like I was there in that moment with Anne and Roland.
It is not long before the relationship between Anne and Hartman begins to blossom, the issue is that he is married. The issue I have with this is that it seems to be a dance the two of them have in the book, a flirtatious dance. There are times in the book I feel sorry for Anne and then at times I don’t because she is becoming more and more friendly with a married man. There was a line in the book that really got me, it was:
“It’s not a perfect arrangement for you. But that’s not your fault and it’s not mine. It’s the fault of small-town society where people have nothing better to do than gossip and lie about each other.”
This section really annoyed me to say the least. It is clear that the intention of Hartman is more than that of just a friend and of course with all of the sneaking around the town he and Anne do off course the towns people will gossip if they found out. The way this is written seems like he is trying to shift the blame from himself for making Anne feel nervous and uncomfortable with lying by essentially saying that if the town people were more open minded we wouldn’t have to sneak around. Well no Hartman, if you were honest and had spoken to your wife and had not hidden this from her and had made the decision jointly to help Anne out with her housing situation then it might be a different story. Even if Hartman did have good intentions and was not interested in Anne in a romantic way, this action just makes me distrust his character immensely.
Towards the end of the book when Hartman and Anne parted ways, I almost felt sorry for them both. Anne begging Hartman to stay with her I found pathetic, and sad. Although I felt the tiniest bit sorry for her, she knew he was a married man and yet continued on in the delusion that he would be with her and leave his wife for her. In the end I believe wholeheartedly that Hartman was the sole cause of Anne’s sadness and he was the instigator of the relationship. In the end he did the right thing and let Anne go for the sake of his wife and marriage but at what cost? Anne was depressed and the wife knew of Hartmans indiscretions, I don’t know what’s worse.
All in all I did enjoy the book, it’s not something I would rush to re-read but I will definitely read another of Sebastian Faulks works. I’m sure there were more important aspects and undertones of the book that I have completely ignored for the purposes of my review but the fact that he got me thinking about the relationship and it made me feel annoyed and angry at the characters I think just shows his writing got under my skin and that isn’t a bad thing.
hungryheart87's review against another edition
3.0
I loved 'Birdsong' and was therefore v excited to read another book in Faulks's French trilogy. The book isn't a huge disappointment, but it doesn't stand up well next to 'Birdsong' in terms of quality. The story plods along well enough, but I just never cared enough for either of the main characters. The secondary characters are paper thin. As per usual, Faulks spends too much time waffling on in detail about things that are irrelevant, something I found infuriating in one of his more recent novels, 'A Week in December'. In summary - it's not a bad book. But it's not super exciting either and the ending is bland and predictable.
maiplereads's review against another edition
sad
tense
slow-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
3.5
took me a while to finish this one... very frustrating ending but the imagery was pretty
need to sit and think on it and maybe give it a reread to fully appreciate it
need to sit and think on it and maybe give it a reread to fully appreciate it
shahrun's review against another edition
3.0
Not really sure what I made of this. Did we really leave the characters any better off than when we started? This is a kind of snap-shot peep into peoples lives. This is what happened then, like a brief glimpse into someone’s window as you walk buy. All you know is pretty much what you just saw in that instance: I guess there are too many why’s in my mind, questions not really asked, never mind answered by the plot.