A Daughter's a Daughter and Other Novels: A Mary Westmacott Omnibus
by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0312274726 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0312274726 Global Overview for this book
2 journalers for this copy...
Bought at Goodwill to read and release in the wild.
Since hakkalina in Hungary is one of the winners of my Happy 3rd BC Birthday to me (and to you) RABCK!, and requested this book, it has been bumped to the very top of Mt. TBR. It's a long one, so I better get started!
These three novels were quite different in style than an Agatha Christie mystery. Each of them is a character study that explores the relationships between mothers (or mother figures) and daughters, and the absent, unreliable, or charmingly self-centered men with whom they are unfortunately involved.
The first, "A Daughter's A Daughter," is about Ann and Sarah Prentice, a mother and daughter who have only each other thanks to the untimely death of Ann's husband/Sarah's father. Sarah is the center of Ann's universe. When Sarah goes off on a skiing holiday, leaving her mother alone, her mother falls in love and gets engaged (people fell in love and got engaged much more quickly in the early and mid part of the last century!) to a man Sarah dislikes immediately. Jealousy, immaturity, and spite drive the rest of the story, and I found it hard to sympathize with any of the characters except the faithful house servants.
The middle, "Unfinished Portrait," starts with a letter to the author from an artist who is attempting to paint a portrait of a woman with words, rather than paint. He does it quite effectively, though he doesn't think so, and there is a slight twist at the end that I found surprisingly satisfying.
I thought the last book, "The Burden," would be my favorite after reading the first two parts of it. But then it took an unexpected turn into spiritual/religious territory and it rather lost me. Llewellyn's story seemed so far removed from Laura's and Shirley's stories that it jarred me out of context. The ending seemed rushed, as if it existed only to tie up the loose ends as quickly as possible and be done with it.
Nevertheless, Agatha Christie always has a few lines whose truths make me feel like the page has transformed into a mirror as I'm reading, and these books were no exception. She may have felt the same way when writing them, because many of the situations in these three novels mirror those in her own life. Very interesting.
The first, "A Daughter's A Daughter," is about Ann and Sarah Prentice, a mother and daughter who have only each other thanks to the untimely death of Ann's husband/Sarah's father. Sarah is the center of Ann's universe. When Sarah goes off on a skiing holiday, leaving her mother alone, her mother falls in love and gets engaged (people fell in love and got engaged much more quickly in the early and mid part of the last century!) to a man Sarah dislikes immediately. Jealousy, immaturity, and spite drive the rest of the story, and I found it hard to sympathize with any of the characters except the faithful house servants.
The middle, "Unfinished Portrait," starts with a letter to the author from an artist who is attempting to paint a portrait of a woman with words, rather than paint. He does it quite effectively, though he doesn't think so, and there is a slight twist at the end that I found surprisingly satisfying.
I thought the last book, "The Burden," would be my favorite after reading the first two parts of it. But then it took an unexpected turn into spiritual/religious territory and it rather lost me. Llewellyn's story seemed so far removed from Laura's and Shirley's stories that it jarred me out of context. The ending seemed rushed, as if it existed only to tie up the loose ends as quickly as possible and be done with it.
Nevertheless, Agatha Christie always has a few lines whose truths make me feel like the page has transformed into a mirror as I'm reading, and these books were no exception. She may have felt the same way when writing them, because many of the situations in these three novels mirror those in her own life. Very interesting.
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sending to hakkalina in Hungary, one of the winners of my Happy 3rd BC Birthday to me (and to you) RABCK! Enjoy!
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Take your time reading the book, and after you finish, please make another journal entry to record your thoughts about it. This book is now yours, and you can keep it if you choose, though we would love for you to share it. If you pass it along, please make a release note to let others know where you left it.
Whatever you decide to do, please leave the label intact, so the book has a chance to keep in touch with us. Thanks and enjoy!
Sending to hakkalina in Hungary, one of the winners of my Happy 3rd BC Birthday to me (and to you) RABCK! Enjoy!
Congratulations--you caught a book!Welcome to BookCrossing.com, where we are trying to make the whole world a library!
If you have not already done so, please make a journal entry so we know this book has found a new home. You don't need to join BookCrossing and you can remain completely anonymous. However, we encourage you to join so that you can follow this book's future travels. It's fun and free, and your personal information will never be shared or sold. If you decide to join, consider listing grubsneerg (or any other journaller of this book) as the member who referred you.
Take your time reading the book, and after you finish, please make another journal entry to record your thoughts about it. This book is now yours, and you can keep it if you choose, though we would love for you to share it. If you pass it along, please make a release note to let others know where you left it.
Whatever you decide to do, please leave the label intact, so the book has a chance to keep in touch with us. Thanks and enjoy!
What a beautiful series of Bookplates, that you also sent me! Oh, I love them so much!
Thank you!
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Update: 2010.06.03.
I hope you, grubsneerg, have got my thank you letter regarding this book, I am not sure that my PM sendings are successfull ones because of the "BUG: getting PMs with or without sent me a copy option". If you haven't got, then I say again a big T H A N K Y O U here for you! :)
