Entry tags:
glasses, book
Home from work today because ill (a GI thing, nothing worse). Also was feeling good enough this afternoon to manage to drag myself (to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
myrialux's passenger seat) to an opthamologist appointment to get new glasses prescriptions. We'd already had to cancel this once before, so I didn't want to cancel unless absolutely necessary. The eye dilation is almost worn off right now, but I'll finish reading DW and go stare at a page of actual text instead of a monitor shortly.
Ended up ordering 3 pairs of glasses from Zenni--one bifocals (with magnetic sunglasses), and two computer glasses to have one at work and one at home because I am TIRED of schlepping them back and forth to work, and (very occasionally) forgetting to bring them to work. I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier to do this.
I've got a year subscription to the Heywood Hill curated book service, where they send you one book a month tailored to your tastes, or at least what they can glean of them from interviewing you (either via phone or via questionnaire). While they've been hit or miss, they nailed it solidly with William Urban's Medieval Mercenaries, and gave me a complete miss with a book, which had a FABULOUS cover, about spies in World War II. But that one ended up being a perfect gift for my father-in-law who eats WWII books up with a spoon. I'm not opposed to reading about WWII spycraft, it's just that I ended up bouncing off the prose--one of the things I mentioned in the interview is that I really like interesting voice and I was hopeful that this would have some of that, but no.
Anyway, the February offering arrived today, The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (MUCH BETTER UK cover and US cover via affiliate link). I read it all this morning, because there were some interesting stylistic elements to it, but my opinion overall is that it kinda falls down for me. It is a Literary Novel (tm) using some trappings of the cozy mystery genre, but do not expect a standard mystery. I can see why they sent it to me--I mentioned I'd recently read a lot of mystery and romance set in the period between WWI and WWII, which dealt with the fall out of WWI, and this, in part, does that.
If this were on AO3, I'd call it RPF AU with an OC. It takes an actual event--Agatha Christie vanishing for 11 days in 1926 after her first husband asked for a divorce so he could marry his mistress, a time she never explained--and tells it form the POV of the husband's mistress. The identity of the mistress is where it first diverges from reality. The narrative voice is interesting--I'd call it first person omniscient, because it's written as if the mistress, Nan O'Dea, knows what most people are thinking. The conceit is revealed early on: O'Dea is, in effect, writing this book, and so sometimes she explains why she knows what someone is doing and thinking, but other times she doesn't explain and you're left to wonder. The camera's eye in different sections jumps into other people's heads, or sometimes it's Nan who's explaining what people are thinking and what their motivations are, and sometimes you're not sure if it's her or it's gone fully into third person. This was not handled badly, I found, and it lent strength to the notion that you can't tell if Nan is a trustworthy or an unreliable narrator, which is one of the questions at the heart of the book.
I have to get deep into spoiler territory to discuss the stuff that didn't fit well with me. 3...2...1...
So the author's note explains that de Gramont's agent gave her an article about Christie's disappearance and suggested she write a novel about it. What it feels like to me happened was that de Gramont had an idea for a story about the effects of the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, where unmarried expectant mothers were used as slave labor and abused, and their babies were adopted out (and far worse), without their consent, and about sexual abuse by priests. And then she hung that story on the coatrack she fashioned out of the Christie event.
Let's just say having this sprung on me when I was expecting a somewhat lighter book, was a bit disconcerting.
Had I gotten the American edition, I might have been a bit more ready for it, as its description is a lot different than the UK version, but Heywood Hill is in the UK, and so that's the one I got, which sounds a bit more traditional mystery and which has a cover that screams Cozy Mystery. (I love it. But it's misleading.)
Nan O'Dea's deal is that she was in a Magdalen Laundry and had her baby taken away. She thinks her daughter was adopted by the Christies, and has become Archie Christie's mistress in order to break up his marriage and marry him so she can be part of her daughter's life. This is the questions that remains unanswered at the end of the book: is she correct, or is she delusional? I rather like that it's unanswered, and that when Agatha Christie confirms it near the end, we don't know if Christie is choosing to go along with the delusion because she's benefiting from the breakup of her marriage, or if it's true.
There is also a murder mystery near the end, which comes out of fucking nowhere, although it's connected to the abusive priest subplot, and which is rather Murder on the Orient Express-ish in that half the people in the room are in on it. I wish it had shown up much closer to the beginning of the book, but that would have made it more of a genre mystery, where the focus is on external plot, and not a literary novel in which the focus is on inner character.
Here's a couple of blurbs that didn't read the same book I did:
"'A novel that literally out-Christies Agatha. An exciting, moving and delightful read' - Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal"
(a) it does not out-Christie Agatha. In fact, it steals, cough, pays homage to Murder on the Orient Express and probably more that I'm not familiar with. (b) MAGDALEN LAUNDRIES ARE NOT DELIGHTFUL.
"'Elegant, ingenious and hugely enjoyable' - AJ Pearce, bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird and Yours, Cheerfully"
No, on all counts. Magdalen Laundries and clerical abuse are not enjoyable, in fact.
I do like this blurb, which says absolutely nothing:
"'This is a book which has it all' - Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of The Doll Factory"
Anyway, I do like the title, which has a triple twist to it: "affair" as in Nan's endeavor, and then "affair" as in her affair with Christie's husband, and then a more subtle "affair" as in Agatha Christie's change of attitudes to and relationships with with Nan and other people. Which I won't tell you more about--if the rest of this seems interesting to you, you can go ahead and encounter that yourself, even though I am not 100% convinced by her short-term love affair.
myrialux's passenger seat) to an opthamologist appointment to get new glasses prescriptions. We'd already had to cancel this once before, so I didn't want to cancel unless absolutely necessary. The eye dilation is almost worn off right now, but I'll finish reading DW and go stare at a page of actual text instead of a monitor shortly. Ended up ordering 3 pairs of glasses from Zenni--one bifocals (with magnetic sunglasses), and two computer glasses to have one at work and one at home because I am TIRED of schlepping them back and forth to work, and (very occasionally) forgetting to bring them to work. I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier to do this.
I've got a year subscription to the Heywood Hill curated book service, where they send you one book a month tailored to your tastes, or at least what they can glean of them from interviewing you (either via phone or via questionnaire). While they've been hit or miss, they nailed it solidly with William Urban's Medieval Mercenaries, and gave me a complete miss with a book, which had a FABULOUS cover, about spies in World War II. But that one ended up being a perfect gift for my father-in-law who eats WWII books up with a spoon. I'm not opposed to reading about WWII spycraft, it's just that I ended up bouncing off the prose--one of the things I mentioned in the interview is that I really like interesting voice and I was hopeful that this would have some of that, but no.
Anyway, the February offering arrived today, The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (MUCH BETTER UK cover and US cover via affiliate link). I read it all this morning, because there were some interesting stylistic elements to it, but my opinion overall is that it kinda falls down for me. It is a Literary Novel (tm) using some trappings of the cozy mystery genre, but do not expect a standard mystery. I can see why they sent it to me--I mentioned I'd recently read a lot of mystery and romance set in the period between WWI and WWII, which dealt with the fall out of WWI, and this, in part, does that.
If this were on AO3, I'd call it RPF AU with an OC. It takes an actual event--Agatha Christie vanishing for 11 days in 1926 after her first husband asked for a divorce so he could marry his mistress, a time she never explained--and tells it form the POV of the husband's mistress. The identity of the mistress is where it first diverges from reality. The narrative voice is interesting--I'd call it first person omniscient, because it's written as if the mistress, Nan O'Dea, knows what most people are thinking. The conceit is revealed early on: O'Dea is, in effect, writing this book, and so sometimes she explains why she knows what someone is doing and thinking, but other times she doesn't explain and you're left to wonder. The camera's eye in different sections jumps into other people's heads, or sometimes it's Nan who's explaining what people are thinking and what their motivations are, and sometimes you're not sure if it's her or it's gone fully into third person. This was not handled badly, I found, and it lent strength to the notion that you can't tell if Nan is a trustworthy or an unreliable narrator, which is one of the questions at the heart of the book.
I have to get deep into spoiler territory to discuss the stuff that didn't fit well with me. 3...2...1...
So the author's note explains that de Gramont's agent gave her an article about Christie's disappearance and suggested she write a novel about it. What it feels like to me happened was that de Gramont had an idea for a story about the effects of the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, where unmarried expectant mothers were used as slave labor and abused, and their babies were adopted out (and far worse), without their consent, and about sexual abuse by priests. And then she hung that story on the coatrack she fashioned out of the Christie event.
Let's just say having this sprung on me when I was expecting a somewhat lighter book, was a bit disconcerting.
Had I gotten the American edition, I might have been a bit more ready for it, as its description is a lot different than the UK version, but Heywood Hill is in the UK, and so that's the one I got, which sounds a bit more traditional mystery and which has a cover that screams Cozy Mystery. (I love it. But it's misleading.)
Nan O'Dea's deal is that she was in a Magdalen Laundry and had her baby taken away. She thinks her daughter was adopted by the Christies, and has become Archie Christie's mistress in order to break up his marriage and marry him so she can be part of her daughter's life. This is the questions that remains unanswered at the end of the book: is she correct, or is she delusional? I rather like that it's unanswered, and that when Agatha Christie confirms it near the end, we don't know if Christie is choosing to go along with the delusion because she's benefiting from the breakup of her marriage, or if it's true.
There is also a murder mystery near the end, which comes out of fucking nowhere, although it's connected to the abusive priest subplot, and which is rather Murder on the Orient Express-ish in that half the people in the room are in on it. I wish it had shown up much closer to the beginning of the book, but that would have made it more of a genre mystery, where the focus is on external plot, and not a literary novel in which the focus is on inner character.
Here's a couple of blurbs that didn't read the same book I did:
"'A novel that literally out-Christies Agatha. An exciting, moving and delightful read' - Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal"
(a) it does not out-Christie Agatha. In fact, it steals, cough, pays homage to Murder on the Orient Express and probably more that I'm not familiar with. (b) MAGDALEN LAUNDRIES ARE NOT DELIGHTFUL.
"'Elegant, ingenious and hugely enjoyable' - AJ Pearce, bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird and Yours, Cheerfully"
No, on all counts. Magdalen Laundries and clerical abuse are not enjoyable, in fact.
I do like this blurb, which says absolutely nothing:
"'This is a book which has it all' - Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of The Doll Factory"
Anyway, I do like the title, which has a triple twist to it: "affair" as in Nan's endeavor, and then "affair" as in her affair with Christie's husband, and then a more subtle "affair" as in Agatha Christie's change of attitudes to and relationships with with Nan and other people. Which I won't tell you more about--if the rest of this seems interesting to you, you can go ahead and encounter that yourself, even though I am not 100% convinced by her short-term love affair.