Helpful Score: 2
I started off wondering why I was reading about this not so likeable woman, and 50 pages later realized that who we are and who be become is all about the journey we take and the choices we make. You may not like her, but you see how she got to where she is.
The writing is straight forward, poetic at times and surely the voice of the hero, a woman of brains, courage and sensativity although she hids the sensativity well.
The writing is straight forward, poetic at times and surely the voice of the hero, a woman of brains, courage and sensativity although she hids the sensativity well.
Helpful Score: 2
A powerful, moving and beautifully written book about a woman retelling her life. As she bares her soul through stories of her "private and public sins and loves," you can't help but admire her quirky and selective views. The author won the Booker Prize for this novel.
The elderly Claudia Hampton, a best-selling author of popular history, lies alone in a London hospital bed. This story is her history, the life of a strong, independent woman, with its often contentious relations with family and friends at the center of which is the cruelly truncated affair with Tom, a British tank commander whom Claudia knew as a reporter in Egypt during World War II.
I just couldn't get into it.
An old woman lies on her deathbed, reviewing her life as a historian, war correspondent, lover, wife, mother and friend. This book catches hold of you.
