Helpful Score: 4
A elegantly crafted dissection of English rural lilfe among the well-heeled and privileged. Alice has a perfect life, and now they have bought th4e Grey house, where She is sure is the ideal place to raise her children. As she settles herself into local life. Sllice finally finds what she has been searching for-a discovery that scandalizes the village and opens up old wounds.
Helpful Score: 2
I love all of Joanna Trollope's books. Her characters are interesting and well developed. This one is full of surprises...
Alice is listless and depressed after the birth of her third child, but the purchase of a wonderful new home in a much-desired village promise a new outlook. And the promise delivers, but never in the way anyone expected.
Alice Jordan is a young wife and mother who ostensibly has everything she has ever wanted in her life: a beautiful house in the quiet little English village of Pitcombe, a dull but well-meaning barrister husband and three adorable young children. Instead of being overjoyed, however, Alice - once an extremely talented artist - is depressed and, since the birth of her children, unable to paint. When she meets Clodagh Unwin - the imperiously wayward daughter of local nobility - Alice's life changes immeasurably.
Clodagh has recently returned from America, supposedly nursing her wounds from a broken love affair. The firm and fast friendship that forms between both women soon turns into something more when Clodagh falls in love with Alice and seduces her. Their burgeoning love affair releases Alice from her depression: she becomes more loving towards her husband and children, is more outgoing toward members of the community, and has found her artistic 'joie de vivre' once again.
However, once the women's clandestine affair is discovered, the villagers become standoffish towards them, Alice's husband is shaken to his core, and Alice will have to make the biggest decision of her life.
This is the third of Joanna Trollope's books that I've read, and I have to say that A Village Affair was one book that I didn't want to end. I really haven't read any of Joanna Trollope's books in quite a while, but have just recently got back into reading her work again. I give this book an A+! and am looking forward to reading more of her books very soon.
Clodagh has recently returned from America, supposedly nursing her wounds from a broken love affair. The firm and fast friendship that forms between both women soon turns into something more when Clodagh falls in love with Alice and seduces her. Their burgeoning love affair releases Alice from her depression: she becomes more loving towards her husband and children, is more outgoing toward members of the community, and has found her artistic 'joie de vivre' once again.
However, once the women's clandestine affair is discovered, the villagers become standoffish towards them, Alice's husband is shaken to his core, and Alice will have to make the biggest decision of her life.
This is the third of Joanna Trollope's books that I've read, and I have to say that A Village Affair was one book that I didn't want to end. I really haven't read any of Joanna Trollope's books in quite a while, but have just recently got back into reading her work again. I give this book an A+! and am looking forward to reading more of her books very soon.
Alice Meadows, a budding artist, meets Martin Jordan, and the two--a mismatched pair--marry. Alice seems drawn in to the marriage by the strong bond she forms with Martin's mother, Cecily. Indeed, Alice seems to have a stronger bond with Cecily than she does with Martin. Alice falls in love with the Jordan's home and the idyllic life she imagines they lead. This idyllic life is in direct contrast to the hellish marriage endured by Alice's parents, Elizabeth (a terminal nag), and Sam (the forever unfaithful). Alice seems to lose her identity and is absorbed into the Jordan family quite seamlessly.
10 years and 3 children later, Alice persuades Martin to buy "the Grey House"--another idyllic home in the idyllic setting of the tiny village of Pitcombe. Alice is determined to have a perfect life--after all--what's she got to complain about? She has 3 beautiful healthy children, an indulgent husband, a cleaning lady, and a beautiful home. In fact, Alice finally has everything she's ever wanted. But there's trouble in paradise...
No matter how Alice surrounds herself with local do-gooders, she is suffocating. She is depressed and hasn't picked up a paint brush in years. This is noted by her husband and her mother-in-law, but nothing changes.
Enter Clodagh Unwin--the spoiled daughter of the local gentry. She notices Alice's unhappiness immediately, and she sets out to do something about it
10 years and 3 children later, Alice persuades Martin to buy "the Grey House"--another idyllic home in the idyllic setting of the tiny village of Pitcombe. Alice is determined to have a perfect life--after all--what's she got to complain about? She has 3 beautiful healthy children, an indulgent husband, a cleaning lady, and a beautiful home. In fact, Alice finally has everything she's ever wanted. But there's trouble in paradise...
No matter how Alice surrounds herself with local do-gooders, she is suffocating. She is depressed and hasn't picked up a paint brush in years. This is noted by her husband and her mother-in-law, but nothing changes.
Enter Clodagh Unwin--the spoiled daughter of the local gentry. She notices Alice's unhappiness immediately, and she sets out to do something about it
Great book. Well written.
To round out her decidedly perfect life, Alice Jordan and her husband buy the Grey House, a beautiful 18th century residence in a village of friendly eccentrics. For Alice, it is the ideal place to raise her three children, to resume her painting, to rejuvenate a weary, yet outwardly happy marriage. And as she settles herself into local life, Alice does finally find what shes been searching for a discovery that scandalizes the village and opens up old wounds. But through it, because of it, Alice begins to feel there is hope and humor., understanding and compassion in the new life she must build for herself.
