Kaylum Lally Lally itibaren Boreczek, Polònia
Embarrassingly, I'm just get around to reading Jane Austen.
This book WANTS to be a Daphne du Maurier novel like "Rebecca"... but it wants it so desperately, that it overreaches. I just couldn't get past the mechanism of having 2 different voices - one "modern", one past... Because it's almost impossible to figure out who the past voice is until well into the book. And because the 2nd voice has been introduced to us in third-person, and the narrative for that 2nd voice goes back and forth between third person and 1st person for so long... The "devices" of the book just don't keep me reading: multiple narratives (past and present) and switching voices every other chapter. Each chapter is, maybe, 5-10 pages long. The mystery isn't much of a mystery. And there seems to be excessive cruelty. I literally began reading every-other-chapter to keep with the same "voice" until I skimmed my way through the book. And then I realized that I really wasn't that interested or invested and that I truly didn't care. So I pulled a Dorothy Parker, threw the book across the room, and decided not to read any more. Sorry... just didn't do it for me.
A fun read about making over people's appearances and further, their character.
It was okay. If you want to read something in this genre, I would recommend Narcissus and Goldmund.