Suzanne
Rating:
Review
After tremendous first novels some authors fall flat with their second – I'm thrilled to say that's not the case here! Not one but two sets of twins are at the core of this first-rate novel: Edie and Elspeth, who haven't seen each other for many years after a mysterious falling out, and Edie's daughters Julia and Valentina. The latter are mirror-image twins (which I'd never even heard of before) who are rather immature for their twenty years and seem incapable of being independent from one another. When the tale begins, Elspeth dies and leaves her London flat and a large inheritance to Julia and Valentina. The twins arrive from the U.S. to take possession and in time encounter the apartment building's other residents. One of them, Elspeth's grieving lover Robert, works at Highgate Cemetery next door and can't help but see myriad signs of Elspeth in the two young twins. The tale slows a bit in the middle, but then finds its pace again. Eventually they receive signs that Elspeth's ghost might be lurking about. A faint mist of creepiness hovers throughout the story just out of reach, with different characters feeling trapped in very different ways, until in the last third there's more than one truly horrifying incident.
Best Line:
"He gave himself over to her feet, feeling that he had achieved a new level of debauchery, giving a foot massage to a young girl in public." (pg. 213)
Kim
Rating:
Review
If I thought that Ms. Niffenegger's imagination was phenomenal in her debut novel,
The Time Traveler's Wife, she has kicked it up a notch with this book. In the first few pages, Elspeth Noblin dies in London, and her twin, Edie, who lives in Chicago, knows without even talking with her sister, as they have been exchanging secretive letters for some time. Elspeth and Edie had a falling out several years earlier, when Edie's twins, Julia and Valentina, were babies, and now Elspeth has left the bulk of her estate to her nieces. Included in the twin's inheritance is Elspeth's flat in London, which comes with a few interesting conditions upon occupation by Julia and Valentina, but they are excited to begin their new lives in a distant city. When the twins move in, they are slow to meet Elspeth's upstairs neighbor, and grieving lover, Robert, who is having a hard time living without Elspeth. They also meet another neighbor, Martin Wells, whose wife, Marijke, has recently left him due to his untreated obsessive-compulsive disorder, so to say emotions run high in the twin's new building is an understatement. Robert and Martin do their part to welcome Julia and Valentina to London, including a tour and history lesson of Highgate Cemetery, which is conveniently located next to their flats, and is where Elspeth is buried. Elspeth figures largely into this story, because even though she is dead, her soul remains attached to her flat, and the twins. I especially like the author's unique writing style, as it is descriptive without being wordy. She managed to concoct a rather erotic tete-a-tete between Julia and Martin and second-hand smoke, as strange as that sounds, which surprised me, but not nearly as much as the ending. If I have one gripe, it would be that the middle got a little bogged down, but that's a small complaint. This is one fine and thought-provoking story.
Best Line:
"It had been a revelation: married life without children was a blast."
