From Guardian Unlimited Books ~ When Fran deserts her baby, Louis, and flies off to Las Vegas, she commits the maternal equivalent of the sin against the Holy Ghost. In this flawed but impressive novel, Kate Pullinger treats with thoughtful sympathy that profound taboo, the breaking of the mother-baby bond. The novel uses a fractured narrative perspective to investigate the source of such transgression. By alternating third- and first-person voices and skipping back and forth in time, Pullinger creates a fictional conversation about the rights and wrongs of Fran's position. Is Fran right to call herself "a rubbish mother"? Where does the rage that darkens her originate?What I liked about this book - the writing style.
What I didn't like about this book - I didn't feel any sympathy for the characters, including Nick, Fran's husband, and could care less about what happened to them. And some of the things that happened were hard to believe ... like Leslie taking Fran in, letting her (a stranger with no money) stay in her hotel room in Vegas, giving her a drive to Vancouver and then hanging out with her.
Given the nature of the story, I didn't expect it to be a happy cheery story (and it wasn't).
Would I recommend it? No.
Never heard about that book and after reading your post I don't know if I will bother. Thanks for sharing your opinion anyway - that's why I like to visit you as you always comes up with something interesting.
ReplyDeleteWishing you and Gord a wonderful weekend:-)
It is nice of you to give out some book reviews. At least it gives me the idea on which book to read or not!
ReplyDeletePoor Pullinger got a bashing. hehehe... kidding.
ReplyDeleteI've read some books who made an innate closeness with strangers believable, I guess she didn't pull it off here.
Belated Happy Hearts Day!