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A review by daja57
Trio by William Boyd
3.0
This novel is set in 1968 during the making of a movie in Brighton, England. It charts a few weeks in the lives of the three main characters:
Anny is an American film star, whose ex-husband is on the run from the FBI for terrorism offences, is enjoying a delightfully innocent and purely physical sexual relationship with her co-star, a failing pop singer.
Elfrida is an alcoholic novelist with writer's block who is married to the film's director.
Talbot, the film's producer, has a wife and children and a wholly secret flat in London where he is known by another name.
For each of them, their problems multiply until they reach a crisis, at which point each of them finds a different resolution.
It was an interesting story but I found it hard to really empathise with any of the characters. The novel is told from the alternating point of view of the three main characters and, each time, you are inside their heads, feeling what they sense and experiencing their thoughts. But I never felt I was actually inside their heads and I think this was because it was told in the third person and the past tense which kept me at a distance. In film terms it was as if I was watching the actors from a standard camera without any extreme close ups (or any long distance shots).
It is formally divided into three books entitled Duplicity, Surrender and Escape. I suppose the theme of the book is that all of these characters are trying to locate their true self ... and it is only when you know who you truly are that you can be happy.
Anny is an American film star, whose ex-husband is on the run from the FBI for terrorism offences, is enjoying a delightfully innocent and purely physical sexual relationship with her co-star, a failing pop singer.
Elfrida is an alcoholic novelist with writer's block who is married to the film's director.
Talbot, the film's producer, has a wife and children and a wholly secret flat in London where he is known by another name.
For each of them, their problems multiply until they reach a crisis, at which point each of them finds a different resolution.
It was an interesting story but I found it hard to really empathise with any of the characters. The novel is told from the alternating point of view of the three main characters and, each time, you are inside their heads, feeling what they sense and experiencing their thoughts. But I never felt I was actually inside their heads and I think this was because it was told in the third person and the past tense which kept me at a distance. In film terms it was as if I was watching the actors from a standard camera without any extreme close ups (or any long distance shots).
It is formally divided into three books entitled Duplicity, Surrender and Escape. I suppose the theme of the book is that all of these characters are trying to locate their true self ... and it is only when you know who you truly are that you can be happy.