Reviews

This isn’t the kind of book I usually like, but Penelope Lively is just really good at making a story about ordinary people into something immersive and interesting.

kdhanda's review against another edition

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1.0

Skip it. Utterly dry and one-dimensional.

sweetpeppah's review against another edition

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3.0

Charming wander through a family history.. It bothered me that everyone who fell in love did it about 3 minutes after meeting each other. Guess it makes for a quicker story :p

misslezlee's review against another edition

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I loved this book! One of Penelope Liveley's enduring themes is the palimpsest - in fact she used that word obsessively in many of her early books. Although the word itself is absent from this delightful novel, that's what it's about - the layering of present experiences over faded pasts.

All those love stories in such a short book! And I, too, want those frescoes!

mdd12's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

ejmiddleton's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved that each of the stories of these women was put into the context of the times of their lives - their parents, the historical period in which they lived, the options available to them at the time. I don't think I would have been able to appreciate any of these sketches without having a marriage and children, which makes me wonder, again, why we ever study literature in high school before most life has happened to us.

nocto's review against another edition

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4.0

Catching up with a big backlog of read books, hence very short writeups.

Loved this - bit predictable and circle closing towards the end but that was made up for by some great story telling early on.

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