Beryl W. reviewed on 2/15/2010 + 44 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 9

I am always caught up quickly by Niffenegger's thoughtful prose and interesting characters. I was drawn in and captured by the promise of a truly excellent story, completely willing to believe whatever she asked of me for the sake of the adventure. A set of twins who are long estranged for unknown reasons, one living in England, Elspeth, and one in Chicago, Edy. Only Edy has children, and they are also identical twin girls, Julia and Valentina. Elspeth dies and leaves her flat in London to the twins she has never met with the stipulation that they must live there for a year, and their parents never set foot inside. The girls, incredibly young emotionally for their age (21), close only to eachother, not knowing what else to do with their lives, decide to take on the adventure. The plot involves a cemetery, which borders their new home and employs Robert, the deceased aunt's lover, who also lives in the flat below theirs. The most interesting and likable characters in the book are Martin and Marijke who live above the girl's flat. Martin has OCD that totally controls his life and drives Marijke to leave him suddenly after a long marriage to save her own sanity. I thought I had an idea of where this was all coming together, though the process and most especially the reasoning behind it, tarnished many of the characters I had come to really like. At the heart of most of their desire is selfish gratification, at any, I repeat, ANY cost! Of course these are ghosts we are dealing with here, so maybe the same moral expectations don't apply? Regardless, as the biggest part of the plan is executed, we are asked to stretch past anything that could be remotely believable. It was there I had to ask myself... Really???? Some of the characters were likable enough until then. But I, even MY gullible self, can't keep liking someone who is just plain BAD, ghost or human! I love her writing, her creativity, her imagination, the believability of many of her characters. I love the descriptions of London, the cemetery, the weather, the emotions, the history.
Ultimately, for me, I think this was a story about people getting what they asked for and realizing too late that the price was too high, then having to live (or relive) with the consequences. One very redeeming feature was Martin's ultimate truimph! A whole wonderful book could have been written about Martin himself!

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