"Audrey Niffenegger's spectacularly compelling second novel opens with a letter that alters the fate of every character. Julia and Valentina Poole are semi-normal American twenty-year-olds with seemingly little interest in college or finding jobs. Their attachment to one another is intense. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. From a London solicitor, the enclosed letter informs Valentina and Julia that their English aunt, whom they never knew, has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions to their inheritance: that they live in it for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the estranged Elspeth and Edie, their mother."The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders the vast and ornate Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Elliot, Radclyffe Hall, Stella Gibbons, and Karl Marx are buried. Julia and Valentina come to know the living residents of their building. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword-puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive compulsive disorder; Marijke, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including--perhaps--their aunt.
"Author of one of the most beloved first novels in recent years, Niffenegger returns with an unnerving, unforgettable and enchanting ghost story, a novel about love and the tenacity of life--even after death."
I really enjoyed Niffenegger's first book and this one was no exception. I finished this book at almost two this morning because I just couldn't put it down.
It started off very heart-wrenching and progressed at a steady pace. Even the parts where the twins were wandering London gave insight into their characters. I loved the settings (partially because I'm from some where around the area where the Chicago portion of the story takes place and I'm dying to go to England to study abroad and see London.) Her descriptions of the places were beautiful. Even Highgate Cemetery had a very hauntingly etherial appeal to it--even for someone like me who has a bit of an..."aversion" to cemeteries. I think I may even go to visit the cemetery when I go to England.
I enjoyed Robert as a character because he was the perfect foil to the "Americanness" of the twins. He was sweet and kind and slightly awkward, which the author manages to make attractive. My heart broke for him when he lost Elspeth. Martin--because he lived in his own OCD world, trapped in his flat without the woman he loves--almost seems like he has his own side-story. This provided a relief from the density of the rest of the book. He was very difficult not to feel for. He was a brilliant man, trapped in his flat because the world has become too difficult to handle. The twins were functionally disfunctional--though this sounds funny, this is the only way to describe it...you'll understand when you read it. Valentina quickly became my favorite twin; I think because I saw a lot of myself in her. (Not in the way when she...well...I can't give anything away, so you'll just have to figure out our relationship to one another.)
Overall, this book was intense and morbid in a Victorian-gothic romance-sense. Quite a bit darker than her other book that I've read, this book was deep and intense and made you think. I look forward to reading more from her because of the brilliant twists and turns and the surprises that keep you salivating for more.
3 comments:
I think that you have a lot of good points about the progression of the book, although you fail to mention how the point of view of the novel switches from character to character so abruptly that it creates confusion in the reader until they realize that they are reading from a different character’s mind. The setting was fabulously described- though after reading her first novel I am hardly surprised. Likewise, her descriptions of the characters were crafted in such a way that she wasn’t describing them; they were sprung to life with every action… every thought… that they gave.
I felt for Elspeth… until the end. Martin was charming, even with his illness. Robert was difficult. At first, I liked him and his devotion for Elspeth, but once he started playing around (trying not to give anything away here) I lost my affection for him and I feel that the ending (I mean the FINAL ending) was fully justifiable.
I have mixed feelings about the twins. Being a twin myself (though fraternal) I fully identify with their predicament. I remember feeling that way: panicking at the thought of not being with my sister, getting angry when people compared us, irritation springing up whenever I’d have to give in. I feel a lot of what Valentina was feeling, though nowhere near to her extent. Because I look so unlike my sister, I was able to develop my own identity, create a bit of separation, which allowed me the opportunity to define myself as a person separate from my sister. Valentina was unable to do the same and her desperation and irritation was able to consume her and drown her in her depression. Julia was bossy and controlling, but she didn’t mean to be such a dictator. Much as a person will suffocate the people that they love in their attempt to keep them close, Julia wanted to keep Valentina close because of her fear of the unknown and her inability to define herself without her sister.
The mystery of the split between the sisters was fairly easy to unravel, even if the specifics weren’t clarified as easily, and I was fairly repulsed by the lengths that each of the characters was willing to go to in their separate ways.
I agree with you about the intensity and morbidity of the novel. At first it was interesting and haunting but towards the end it had crossed some unclear line and became sinister in a semi-unappealing way. The overall way that the novel was written, however, was a mind teaser that kept you thinking all the way through the novel and was something that I enjoyed. All in all, though I enjoyed the novel, my aversion to the actions of the characters might keep me from rereading the novel for some time.
Thanks so much for your review! I can totally understand everything that you said about the book. I try my best to be thorough, but (as this review was before I began my RAIR method) I can't be perfect. What I really appreciated was the view you added on the life of a twin. In all honesty, I didn't even consider how someone with this life would view this book. I know that sounds silly, but it really was an afterthought. I definitely agree about Martin. There's something about him that jumps off the page. (And, by the way, I loved your description of the characters liveliness.) I also agree with your description of the shift from morbidly fascinating to just plain morbid. I sensed this too, but I'm a little bit biased and have probably let my attraction to somewhat dark and twisted literature to color my analysis. I fully respect and appreciate your opinions and understand them completely. I am SO happy that you posted them here and really look forward to more of your eloquent opinions :)
I know! At first, obviously the reader is aware that there is a death, which is kinda dark, but the selfish obsession that Elspeth displays, coupled with the "big secret" at the end takes the novel a step beyond acceptable.
Post a Comment