The setting is a rich one. The goal of girls is to marry well and woe betide you if you were from one of the richer, more elite families and you decided to marry down. There were no careers as such, or advancement for women in the professional field. In this setting we have the families of Van Vliet (the supermarket giants), the Linde's amongst others. Three girls Em, Caroline and Beverley's lives will be linked permanently by children and events which will leave them scarred like never before.
Em is the first to get married. When she produces twin boys she feels complete. Her entire life then becomes devoted to making "something" of them. Using her Van Vliet connections she is determined that they be someone big in life. Caroline is somewhat different. A bit of a radical. Then we have Beverley - artist extraordinary and not really living in the moment. It is the offspring though that create catastrophe,
The story unwinds slowly. It does not hit you from the first page. You begin to think this is a story of three friends, relations, family. When it does hit you, it is unexpected and huge. The damage done to not just the children, but to the lives of all the people around is stupendous. It continues in this vein till the end of the book and it holds you spellbound and enthralled right up to the end. You really are disappointed that it ends as you want to know a bit more.
Very well written the book was sent to me by Netgalley courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media.
This sounds different in a good way. I like Open Road Media's selections.
ReplyDeleteThis one does sound good. Since it seems to start slow, I would need to start when I have time to get through a good chunk of it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a life I'll never know. This sounds rather fascinating.
ReplyDelete