I have to say, I HATE the cover of mine (second picture) and the last one with those ghastly white outfits...
Appropriately, The REAL Book Club (sadly sans Nat and Tim) met to discuss Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger's second novel after the Time Traveller's Wife, in the book-filled Library Bar near the viaduct. I didn’t take any notes so I can only remember in part what we all thought of it but I’ll give it a go... I think the general consensus was: a good enough, page-turning read that most of us fairly whizzed through but it *was* slightly disturbing and once they begin to plan Valentina’s staged death it all gets a little bit much. Niffenegger does a good job of making the whole ghost thing seem very believable but this was a step too far (and quite a large step at that)! I think mainly we all thought: surely there is an easier/safer/less dramatic way to break out on your own and live your own life away from your twin?! It just didn’t quite seem plausible. I don’t think we especially liked any of the characters either, apart from Martin & Marikje (sp?) which was a very sweet side story. And we though Elspeth probably planned all along to take over Valentina’s body... evil woman.
Our UK correspondent Tim added: " I liked Her Fearful all the way up until the end (I thought the end was a little weak). I agree, she didn't portray the bossy twin as bossy enough to make me believe that death would be the only way out. AND of course Elspeth knew all along that V would be too weak to take the body straight away. It took her weeks to be able to influence dust! As far as ghost stories go though, I liked it :)"
Ooh and of course, I just clicked, I think the title is a reference to a line from William Blake's poem "The Tyger":
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Though not entirely sure of the exact connection, other than the general twin-ness which leads to rather fearful consequences...
Next book is: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - a nice (yet entirely serendipitous) segue from Her Fearful Symmetry as apparently Stella Gibbons is buried in Highgate Cemetery... Actually we chose it coz it’s supposed to be funny and we felt that was sorely needed (and it’s on that 100 books list Nat!). I’m very excited, been meaning to read this for awhile. She was quite a prolific author and popular in her day but only Cold Comfort Farm (published in 1932) really seems to have been remembered, her other novels went out of print for a long time I think, though some have recently been republished. It’s funny, I can’t stomach a lot of chick lit from nowadays but I’ve developed a penchant for what is, I guess, ‘vintage’ chick lit ;-) (you could probably put Jane Austen in that category! FYI there are references to Persuasion in it too...).
