Duy itibaren Pallare, Province of Savona, İtalya
Loved this book! Very atmospheric
A 120-page novella, you will easily knock over this book in an hour or so. It's a compelling, if slightly eerie, tale--and you're left wishing that the author really had worked up into a novel rather than sketching out this snapshot of a family at a moment of crisis. The tale seems somewhat less convincing because it isn't quite fully fleshed out. What are the origins of this bizarrely wealthy family in the French countryside? Why does no one express surprise when the estranged daughter turns up with her two children after a twelve-year absence in which she has clearly been brutally abused by her Australian husband? How did she even orchestrate an escape, especially as far as France? What does ring true, however, is a mother's grief at the birth of her stillborn child. Sophie's difficulty in relinquishing the child's body seems, while at times farcical, explicable, as she wrestles with the loss she feels. Leigh writes in her usual elegant manner--recommended if you're looking for a slightly surreal distraction.
I had read Judith Jones's memoir about Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and had seen tv shows about Julia and the writing of the book, so much of this was familiar. i enjoyed getting the story from a different perspective, though. There is a lot of politics in the letters, especially discussions about the horrors of the McCarthy era, which directly affected Julia and her husband Paul.
I have just won this book from First Reads. I look forward to reading it. Thanks.