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A review by misha_ali
Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw
5.0
I originally gave this four stars but upgraded to five after some musing.
Going into this, I was unsure that I would get the point of yet another sliding doors style story where a person makes a small choice differently and we see the impact it has on their life. While it's true that this is essentially the story of an Olympic athlete competing in the biggest swim race of her life and then fast forwarding to three completely different versions of her life twenty years later, each version pulled me in and engaged me fully, so kudos where it's due.
Each of the three versions of Jesse's life are significantly different except for one thing: regret. In various flashes of insight, we get hints about Jesse clearly being in love with her biggest competition at the time, Marty, and the regret that haunts her about them completely losing touch subsequently. Each version of Jesse's life features roughly a similar cast but even the ones closest to her in one life are relative strangers in another. If you like fully fleshed out characters, this is a really engaging book.
I also enjoyed the questions raised by Jesse's memory. She admits to turning Marty's character into whatever suits her best at the time to inspire passion, but it's really interesting how she's unsure about Marty's and her own actions and motivations as time goes on. The questions that haunt her are interesting: Regret and memory are the threads that bind the three narratives.
I'm definitely interested in reading more of Carol Anshaw's writing after reading what she did with this idea.
Going into this, I was unsure that I would get the point of yet another sliding doors style story where a person makes a small choice differently and we see the impact it has on their life. While it's true that this is essentially the story of an Olympic athlete competing in the biggest swim race of her life and then fast forwarding to three completely different versions of her life twenty years later, each version pulled me in and engaged me fully, so kudos where it's due.
Each of the three versions of Jesse's life are significantly different except for one thing: regret. In various flashes of insight, we get hints about Jesse clearly being in love with her biggest competition at the time, Marty, and the regret that haunts her about them completely losing touch subsequently. Each version of Jesse's life features roughly a similar cast but even the ones closest to her in one life are relative strangers in another. If you like fully fleshed out characters, this is a really engaging book.
I also enjoyed the questions raised by Jesse's memory. She admits to turning Marty's character into whatever suits her best at the time to inspire passion, but it's really interesting how she's unsure about Marty's and her own actions and motivations as time goes on. The questions that haunt her are interesting:
Spoiler
Did Marty seduce Jesse the night before to gain an edge for the big event? Did Marty care for her at all, since she discards her immediately after returning home to Australia? Did Jesse subtly let Marty win because she was in love with her?I'm definitely interested in reading more of Carol Anshaw's writing after reading what she did with this idea.