Even though I wasn't totally blown away by The Time Traveler's Wife, I was for some reason extremely eager to read Audrey Niffenegger's new book, Her Fearful Symmetry. I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife for its creativity and imagination; it reminded me of how it felt to read a book as a child - to become entirely engrossed in a fictional world that on the surface is very similar to ours, yet contains certain intriguing yet ultimately unsettling impossibilities. Her Fearful Symmetry is similarly engrossing, and kept me reading into the wee small hours of the morning.
The novel tells of two sets of twins: Edie and Elspeth, who are estranged, and Edie's daughters Julia and Valentina. At the beginning of the book, Elspeth dies of cancer and leaves her nieces all she has, including her flat in London which features a breathtaking view of Highgate cemetery. The plot thickens when Julia and Valentina arrive in London and become acquainted with the other residents of the building: Elspeth's lover Robert; Martin, a highly intelligent obsessive compulsive disorder sufferer who refuses to leave his apartment; and Elspeth's ghost, who haunts her her old apartment. Her Fearful Symmetry is a novel about being trapped, and the many different ways in which a person can be held back and subsequently set free. In many respects it is truly mesmerizing, and has the potential to be a profound, insightful story. Up until about three quarters of the way through, I was literally bursting with excitement anticipating what was going to come next.
That said, the I found the ending of this novel a little disappointing. The last 100 pages are full of contrived twists that would have been predictable had they not been so utterly convenient (for the author) and unlikely, even within the supernatural world of the book. Maybe I was being overly optimistic, but I wanted MORE from this novel. I'm in the mood lately to be awestruck by something, and was hoping to find it here. Sigh...on to the next...
No comments:
Post a Comment