I feel I’ve been neglecting the blog 😦 I read at my usual pace and I also go on commenting on other people’s blogs, but I now have a five-book backlog, which never happened before. I think the blog fills an important gap when at work I’m not being challenged enough intellectually and creatively. It keeps my sanity and energy levels up, but it also means I tend to neglect it when things in “real life” are going really well, as it’s happening now with my new job.
Still, I’ll try to be better at it while at the same time ensuring it doesn’t become a chore.
Anywhooo, back to the review. The Hand that First Held Mine was my bookclub’s February choice. The general (me included) feeling was that we weren’t completely in love with it, but really like it all the same. After the wine started flowing we had good laughs over certain holes in the plot, and became particularly nasty about the idea of someone just “leaping” into a taxi with armfuls of paintings, one of them a Pollock…
The book follows two story lines: in the 50s, 21-year-old Lexie meets a mystery man who changes her life forever. He’s the editor of an art magazine and because of a note he writes to her, Lexie moves to London and finally takes the plunge into the exciting life she always wanted to have.
She is here, she’s in London: any minute now the technicolor part of her life will commence, she is sure, she is certain — it has to.
About 50 years later, we meet Elina, a painter who nearly dies giving birth to her baby boy. This event has a great impact in her physical and mental health, but just as her life is coming back to normal, her boyfriend Ted starts having intriguing flashbacks to his childhood. What binds these two stories?
START SPOILERS
I got hooked into the story very early on, but wished some events were approached a bit more deeply – certain things kept nagging me. For instance, would Felix, a dashing BBC reporter, not recognize a Jackson Pollock if he saw one hidden behind a dresser? How likely is it that Elina, a new mother severely weakened by a horrific experience of labour, would be left to take care of the baby by herself? Why does Elina’s mother not jump for joy when her estranged daughter suggests visiting her with her new-born grandson? Could vile Margot really have trapped Felix, especially when there were no children involved?
Although I effortlessly started to cared about some of the characters (Innes was a great one, I wished he had stuck around more) the novel’s power was diluted by a weak characterisation of secondary people, who could have been much more compelling if they had been given some texture. Vile Margot’s mother, Gloria, was described as pure evil. Felix was just too much of a shallow cad. (Or was he? We have to take Lexie’s word for it.) And did the plot really need Robert Lowe – couldn’t Lexie have gone to the beach by herself?
However, despite the weakness of many of the men in this novel, I really liked the two female leads, Lexie and Elina, unconventional in their own ways, strong and self-reliant women who ‘just got on with it’ and are connected by a love of art. It’s easy for me to like characters who love art, just like those who love books.
The novel’s sense of place was one of its strengths, as the bustling, bohemian Soho of the 50s and its current upmarket counterpart were vividly brought to life. O’Farrell did a great job when she focused on a room and described the transformations which occur to it over time. It brought home that the rooms we live in and the public spaces where we now drink cappuccino have many stories to tell:
Innes’s flat is no longer a flat, at first glance, it is unrecognisable, fifty years on. But the door jams are the same, the window fastenings, the light sandwiches, the ceiling coverings. the raised grain of his wallpaper is just discernible under the awful lilac paint that has been daubed on the wall. there is still the loose board on the landing, which always tripped people up, now covered with beige carpet, and no one who lives here now knows that under there, still, is a spare key for Elsewhere offices.
When O’Farrell deals with the early days and months of motherhood, the feel of a baby’s tense body in one’s arms, a rare moment of serenity shared by new parents, she was also considered spot on by my bookclub friends who are mothers. The dying scene on the beach, on the other hand, was more contentious. Deeply moving for some, like me, but rather sugary for others.
END SPOLIERS
This is my first Maggie O’Farrell, but I have The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox in the TBR. Opinions over which of hers was the best were divided at the bookclub – any opinions?
19 comments
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March 8, 2011 at 5:35 am
Ash
I’ve always wanted to have a fun lively discussion about a book. Sounds like your book club had a good time talking about this one, even if it wasn’t all positive.
March 8, 2011 at 9:33 am
Scribacchina
Books and wine? Your bookclub sure sounds interesting, hehe!
I have never read O’Farrell, but it sounds an interesting book, even though you didn’t love it.
Thank you for the review, and don’t worry too much about the backlog! 😉
March 8, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Falaise
Don’t worry about the backlog – mine is now almost into double figures!
March 8, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
I hadn’t really thought about the weak characterisation of the secondary characters before, but now you mention this I find myself agreeing with you. I wish I had a book club to discuss this one with – it is the sort of book that has a lot to discuss.
I thought that this was much better written than Esme, but Esme had a better plot. I think I ended up rating them about the same – which you prefer will epend on the type of book you enjoy.
March 8, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Steph
This is the only Maggie O’Farrell novel that I’ve read so I can’t comment on what her best work is. BUT, I did really enjoy this when I read it, mostly because I wanted to know how all of the characters were related to each other and I thought the writing was really lovely. I do agree with you in retrospect about the flaws, but I’m still excited to read her other works!
And ditto on all the blog apathy at the moment. I have a ton of books I could be talking about, but I just can’t muster up the enthusiasm/will to do so at the moment…
March 8, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Wallace
I know how it is– once life gets busy it’s hard to keep up the blogging. I try to write out several posts when I get the chance on non-busy days in case a busy week comes (though that doesn’t always get done — I am two reviews behind right now!).
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is the only O’Farrell I’ve read. I definitely liked it and thought it was an important story to tell. Though not a true story, the concept happened often to women in past generations and makes me so incredibly happy t be living in the one that we are in now (in countries that have free women).
March 9, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Kiernan Schroeder
I’m new to your blog, but I already love it. Great review! I’ve been wondering about Maggie O’Farrell’s work for a while. I’ll look forward to reviews of more of her books.
P.S. I know what you mean about blogs, books, and office life. It’s sort of a funny balance. Exciting work = quiet blog. Boring work = exciting blog. 🙂
March 10, 2011 at 6:09 pm
nymeth
Balancing blogging and life can be such a challenge. But hey, most of us are still here after all these years, which must mean it’s somehow possible, even if it doesn’t always feel that way 😛
I haven’t read this, so I skipped the spoilers. But I really want to read O’Farrell sooner rather than later.
March 16, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Joanna
I do the same – blog more at work I mean… And I also have a backlog at the moment! I haven’t read this one, but Esme is waiting on my shelf. Perhaps one to read together?
March 22, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Alex
@Ash: Yes, it was a great bookclub book… but the wine helped 🙂
@Scribacchina: It’s a girls-only bookclub, which I’m afraid to say, does help the relaxed spirit.
@Jackie: if they are so balanced, I wonder why Esme is so much more famous.. humm
@Steph: glad to know your book shopping is helping with your book slump 😉
@Wallace: I really like your idea of taking advantage of the less busy days, thanks for the tip!
@Kiernan: I know! It’s sort of an internal scale that always needs to be balanced.
@nymeth: a blog is almost like having a baby, demanding you attention 🙂
@Joanna: yes, I think that’s a good idea. later in the year?
April 3, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Izzy
I wish I’d been at your book club for the wine and discussion. I have just finished reading The Hand That Once Held Mine and I liked it.I agree about some of the minor characters but I found Ted very interesting. At first, I thought the story was going to focus on Elina and baby blues but it didn’t and I was pleased about that. It was much more interesting to see a man struggling with post natal angst – if that is what you would call it. I thought the interweaving of the stories was very well done. Sometimes our book club choices leave me luke warm but I think they might enjoy this one. We’ve gone through a few months of choosing books set in India so it was nice to get back to something closer to home. I’m moving on to Murder at Shandy Hall next.
May 6, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Alex
@Izzy: completely agree with your point about seeing a man go through it – it’s fresh to say the least! Best book club choice ever: Gone with the Wind, but we had to read it over the summer, since it was so big. Completely worth it though.
September 7, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Franny Lloyd
It’s a bit better than the general run of romantic fiction. Not really a literary read but well written with unusual aspects of technique; I liked where she is uncertain about her character’s past and invents it, as though it were a joint enterprise between reader and writer. None of the characters very deep except the narrator herself who is always exciting and engaging with her enthusiasm for the story – of other people’s lives. Also admirable for the extent to which she must have done her research, for example, into the period of the 2nd WW which I guess must have been well before her time. Too fast paced for me personally but ideal for a younger reader who would find it very exciting. Maybe not a ‘great’ but an excellently written and engaging novel with lots of innovative technique.
November 29, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Roisin Mc Cormack
I just reviewed this myself and really enjoyed your review, glad to hear I’m not the only one who wished Innes had had a bigger part in the book, I loved him! 🙂
February 11, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Sam (Tiny Library)
I haven’t read this one, but I have heard very good things about Esme Lennox….
February 14, 2012 at 4:46 am
Vasilly
Great review. I’ve heard that The Vanishing of Esme Lennox is better than The Hand that First Held Mine. I’ll probably read that one first.
Don’t let the lack of blogging get to you. Life happens and sometimes it’s hard to catch up with blogging things. 🙂 Have a great week.
June 20, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Charlotte Clarke
I’ve been enjoying this book, but I think the gap in time between the two stories is unfeasibly large. If the Ted and Elina story is actually set in the present, and he was born in the early 60s, then he’s a very elderly first-time father, which is of course possible, but I just don’t get the feeling from the story that he is about 50.
October 15, 2012 at 11:56 am
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