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Maggie O'Farrell

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell

    Some of Maggie O’Farrell’s work becomes favorites such as Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait…both top my favorites lists. Clearly it’s her historic fiction that I prefer. But on my husband’s recommendation I set out to read This Must Be The Place. I liked it but can’t say I loved it. Here is my book review This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell.

    O’Farrell introduces us to a plethora of characters, each connected in some way to our protagonist Daniel Sullivan. We meet Daniel as a man living in a reclusive part of Ireland with his somewhat eccentric wife and three children. But as the story unfolds we will learn details about each of their lives and why they are “hiding” in a remote location.

    Daniel has led somewhat of a bizarre life, makes a living as a linguist, despises his father back in Brooklyn, has lost track of college friends and never sees his two grown children in California.

    When Daniel stumbles upon Claudette and her young son Ari, he doesn’t at first realize who she is. But as they get to know each other Daniel realizes Claudette is the former bombshell movie star who dropped off the face of the earth at the height of her film career.

    Somehow these two unlikely characters fall in love and get married. But while Claudette is reclusive Daniel knows all of her secrets, but Claudette will learn she hardly knows any of Daniels…including information about past loves, abortions, alcoholism and a mysterious death.

    Can this couple survive the twists and turns life throws at them? With the help of family who loves them, maybe they can.

    A unique and complicated story, but in my opinion not O’Farrell’s best.

    ***Three stars for This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell

    Thank you for reading my Book Review This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell. See last week’s Book Review The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

    O’Farrell is one of my favorite authors, in fact three of my all-time best are by her; The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Hamnet and the Marriage Portrait. So I was sure I would like this older novel of hers…her very first. Here is my book review The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell.

    O’Farrell is a master at character development. In this novel she creates some interesting characters in two parallel storylines across a fifty year time period. Of course you know these stories will interject at some point, but even when they do you will be taken aback. It is a story of three strong-willed women and their connection.

    The Women

    Lexie – wants so much more than the provincial life laid out for her in the country home of her parents post WWII. She plots her escape thanks to the love of her life Innes. But Innes has his own secrets that will, after his death, haunt Lexie forever.

    Margot – Innes daughter will do anything she can to ruin Lexie’s life. She is Lexie’s nemesis but as the story unfolds we realize that their connection will be greater than either could ever have imagined.

    Elina – present day a new mother struggling with her near death experience giving birth to her son, tries to navigate motherhood, while dealing with her husband Ted’s memory issues. Ted refuses to admit he is ill, and Ted’s parents – especially his mother – is secretive and aloof. What memories is she trying to suppress from Ted?

    The revelations will come to light in a painful way, but Elina will be the hero as she helps her husband grasp his new reality, recover from the shock and repair the fractured family through her never-ending love.

    The Hand That a First Held Mine

    Not her best work but a superb story nonetheless, in true O’Farrell fashion. I enjoyed the plot and the outcome. Thanks for reading my book review The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell.

    ****Four stars for The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell.

    See last week’s book review The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

    We love it when you pin and share our book reviews. Thank you.

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell

    Instructions for a Heat Wave

    Unexpectedly good read about family and the secrets we keep. Here is my book review Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell.

    I just recently read O’Farrell’s spectacular novel Hamnet and I loved every word. So tackling another Maggie O’Farrell seemed like a good idea. This story, though very different from Hamnet, was also well developed and interesting.

    It’s 1976 in London and we find the Riordan family in the middle of a heat wave. Then unexpectedly Gretta Riordan’s recently retired husband goes out for the morning paper and never returns. This event is the catalyst that not only brings three siblings back to the family home, but opens a Pandora’s box of long held family secrets.

    Michael Francis the oldest son who gave up big dreams for his family is now a high school teacher with a crumbling marriage. Monica’s hidden insecurities and skeletons in the closet have created a wide rift between herself and her baby sister Aoife. And Aiofe living in Manhattan is holding her own very big and sad secret.

    This family, full of hidden tragedies, will be rocked to it’s core when they learn the truth about their parents as they search for their missing father. Can it possibly end happily ever after?

    ****Four stars for Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell

    Read last week’s review of Five Quarters of the Orange

    My current read In Pursuit of Memory

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    Instructions for a Heat Wave