At Mrs Lippincote's (Virago Modern Classics) |
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 | It is difficult to pin down the brilliance of this novel in a review. It is all to easy to draw attention to its domestic minutiae. Nothing much happens and reading this amazon page it seems to be easy, gentle, inconsequential women's literature. But it is not. The tone is best described, not as gentle, but autumnal. Taylor also has a beautiful tone and ready, sharp wit.
Domestic based writing can be, as this book and many others prove, as profound and thought provoking as the most epic war novel. The human characters and relationships within this family are painted with truthful, and at times heartbreaking, clarity. I have rarely read a family portrait as realistic and relevant.
It is also never, in spite of its limited plot, boring or dull. It seems odd to describe such a novel as a 'page turner' but it is. The writing is so taut and well controlled that there is always something to discover. And, essentially, you care.
This is no 'clever' modern novel. Apart from the slight ... read more.
Written by Elizabeth Taylor.
Published 06 April 2006.
Published by Virago Press Ltd.
rrp £7.99.
224 pages Paperback.
ISBN: 1844083098
ISBN-13: 9781844083091 | |
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