David brought this along to the York Bookcrossing meetup a few months back, unregistered. I think he said that it was good, but he hadn't got past the first couple of chapters because he got caught up with other things. I've enjoyed all the Jonathan Coe that I've read, so I was keen to give it a go. I can tell you that I didn't get caught up with anything else! I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it totally compelling, so didn't get much else done over the past few days.

The central theme is maternal neglect, and the consequences thereof, generation after generation. It's not something I can particularly identify with, so it worked very well for me that we saw it all through the eyes of Rosamund, who was a character I could identify with far too well! It was as if Coe had observed all the worst aspects of my character, magnified them, and thrust them in front of me! She really is pathetic, isn't she? I mean, very nice and everything, but so needy! Mourning all her life for someone who left her in her youth; all those maternal feelings and no children; desperate to be loved & needed by a succession of people who don't want her... urgh. I liked her, actually, in spite of her reminding me of the most pitiful elements of myself.

I like novels with interesting narrative devices, and this was a new one on me. It takes the form of transcripts of cassettes, where an old lady descibes a series of 20 photographs. I thought it worked extremely well. It had me hooked. The amount of plot material could have filled a thousand pages, but the structure seemed to keep it economical, which I liked.

I'll take this back to the meetup, to see if anyone else fancies a go.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I will be bringing this book along to the York Bookcrossing Meetup on Saturday - a meetup to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the group! Looking forward to celebrating at Stonegate Yard Bar & Brasserie. I hope this book will find a new reader there.

If you've picked this book up and you're new to bookcrossing, welcome! I'd love to hear your comments on the book, if you want to add them to this page. Feel free to do whatever you like with the book, it's entirely up to you.

I did enjoy reading this book and hoped throughout for something to break the cycle of abuse. I too liked the way it was written, as though a journal entry was attached to each picture. It was a unique way of telling someone about where they came from.

Picked this up at York BC meet-up because I've always enjoyed Jonathan Coe, but having read the comments about maternal neglect and cycles of abuse, I'm not sure I'm ever going to be tempted to pick it up! But you never know...

Realise I'm never going to read this so it will be duly released at tonight's magic-themed York BC meet-up.