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Bookish Quotes
"This book is not written in anger. It is written in fury."
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
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6 journalers for this copy...
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Journal Entry 4 by
I received this book today. The book looks very interesting and has had some good reviews. So I shall look forward to reading it. You also enclosed a lovely postcard, (which shows a print of "Le Berceau", The Cradle,1872, Oil on canvas by Berthe Morisot. It is really a lovely picture, and I'm happy that you sent it to me). Thank you very much wibba.From Amazon: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is Maggie O’Farrell’s most stunning novel yet – the story of a life stolen, and reclaimed. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, behold. It is most important to keep yourself very still. Even breathing can remind them that you are there, so only very short, shallow breaths. Just enough to stay alive…’ Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Even Kitty, Esme’s beloved sister, is beginning to lose patience. Something will have to be done. Years later, in the same city, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great aunt in a psychiatric hospital who is about to be released. Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, is too adrift in her own memories to answer Iris’s questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family’s history. |
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Journal Entry 5 by
I ended up with two copies of this same book, which was no problem at all because it just made it quicker for me to read it after I had got around to starting it! I had one copy upstairs and one copy downstairs in my house. So I started it last night and finished it this morning.What a great story, but very sad. This book has no chapters, by the way, but in this case it doesn't matter, as it is sort of separated into sections by the different narrators. There are three of them....Esme, Kitty and Iris. The author flits from past to present and back again, using these characters. It is the story of Esme, a spirited young woman who doesn't want to conform to the life or behaviour that is expected of her. Because of a certain terrible thing that happens to her that affects her mood and her behaviour, her cold- hearted parents, and her jealous sister get her put into a mental institution. Poor Esme ends up spending more than 60 years in there. Her family seem to have written her out of their lives. Then suddenly Iris, a young woman, is informed of the great aunt she never knew existed..... Esme. She collects Esme when she is released from the institution, (she is released only because the institution is closing down), and they start to get to know each other a little. Esme discovers a lot more than what she tells Iris, about the terrible secret her sister Kitty had kept all those years from her family. She then asks Iris to take her to visit her sister Kitty, who is in a care home suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. The book ends soon after that and leaves the reader hanging there, wondering what happened next. A haunting story which I think will stay with you long after the book has been passed on to another reader. Haunting because we have all heard of real life Esme's who were "put away" a few decades ago, just because they were slightly different from others in their views, or because they were victims of something which happened, that was out of their control. I gave the book 10 stars because it is extremely moving and very well written. It will be released this evening. |
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Journal Entry 6 by
Released 1 yr ago (5/7/2012 UTC) at Hengelo, Overijssel Netherlands CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I gave this book to KJSkye to read. She doesn't get much time to read these days, as she has two very small toddlers who require constant attention, but she will get it read eventually she says!!!!
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Released 1 yr ago (5/13/2012 UTC) at Almelo, Overijssel Netherlands CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 10 by
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Journal Entry 11 by
Released 11 mos ago (6/21/2012 UTC) at Colchester, Essex United Kingdom CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 12 by
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Journal Entry 13 by
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Journal Entry 14 by
Released 2 mos ago (3/24/2013 UTC) at The Blue Egg (Farm shop & Café) in Great Bardfield, Essex United Kingdom WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 15 by
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