Clica una miniatura per anar a Google Books.
S'està carregant… The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle (edició 2014)de Kirsty Wark (Autor)
Informació de l'obraThe Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle de Kirsty Wark
S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. The gentle tale wove in and out of two women's lives in concert with a Buddhist Monk and a Gardener Carpenter. Unfortunately, it then turned into a horror story! How will Martha, her two men friends of Elizabeth, Saul and Niall, EVER be able to walk past that wallpaper opening with thinking about the tiny skeleton concealed there???!!!??? I thought I wouldn't enjoy this. The start was slow, and I couldn't see how the characters would grow on me. Don't be fooled if you think this too. The book is a slow burner, and suddenly boils over with interest, intrigue and sadness. The characters are well written, and as someone whose father is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (without giving anything away crucial to the plot) , the family situation familiar. This debut by Kirsty Wark is definitely worth your attention. Beautiful prose. A powerful story and a successful first novel published by someone in their late 50's. Well done Kirsty Wark. It's not everyone's cup of tea and parts of it could be tightened up but the feelings and emotions are strong and vivid. Theme's such as isolation, sense of place, sadness, loss, hope, love, the meaning of our lives, family relationships and alzheimer's are all given a fresh airing in this novel. Kirsty Wark gives hope to every aspiring novelist and writer. Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
Elizabeth Pringle has lived on the beautiful Scottish island of Arran for over 90 year; the retired teacher and spinster is a familiar and yet solitary figure tending her garden and riding her bicycle around the island. When she dies she leaves her beloved house 'Holmlea' to a woman she merely saw pushing a pram down the road over thirty years ago. That young mother Anna had put a letter through Elizabeth's door asking to buy the house but Elizabeth never pursued her. But time passed and Anna is now in a home with dementia and it falls to her daughter Martha, the baby in the pram, to come and take up their inheritance. Martha, in her mid-thirties, is unfulfilled by her job as a journalist, bruised by a bad relationship, and struggling to cope with her mother's encroaching illness, compounded by her younger sister Susie's denial of her mother's worsening condition. 'Holmea,' will be Martha's escape. Once on the island Martha meets a brother and sister Niall and Catriona Anderson and a Buddhist monk called Saul, each of whom leads her closer to Elizabeth while revealing their surprising friendships with this old woman. The house itself, its tapestries and books, gardening notes and letters all help Martha understand Elizabeth...But Elizabeth has left behind a memoir, and Martha is drawn into Elizabeth's past with suprising and heart-breaking revelations. Elizabeth's legacy and Martha's future are more connected than she would ever have thought. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
Debats actualsCapCobertes populars
Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
Ets tu?Fes-te Autor del LibraryThing. |
It is random chance that leaves Martha with Elizabeth's house, and Martha spends time trying to understand Elizabeth, through people who knew her. We find out more about her as we're hearing her memoir told in parallel. The final turn of events is quite startling and leaves the present day stunned.
I liked finding more out about Elizabeth, who we first hear about as a little old lady, living alone and isolated in her home. By hearing her memoir, we find that there's a lot going on under the surface. She's someone who puts me in mind of my elderly female relatives; it's all solidity, no hint of the frolics of past years.
Martha I could have done without, as I could the sex scenes. Elizabeth's were chastely written, Martha's seemed to be equally as old fashioned and out of place. I'm not sure that, had I inherited a house form a stranger, I;d have reacted quite the same way Martha did. I'd have done a lot more throwing out. At times if felt like a character had been introduced into a scene and then forgotten about, the burial at the end introduces 2 people, then has nothing more to say about them. It felt a bit odd, like it could have done with a continuity editor, making sure that we'd counted all the characters into the scene and out again.
I have a hankering after visiting Arran after reading this, the place seeming to be the second most vividly drawn character after Elizabeth. ( )