Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Magic Realism; Literary Fiction
Publication: 2009
When Elspeth dies, she leaves her flat to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, the daughters of her twin sister, Edie.
Julia and Valentina move to London to live in Elspeth's flat. They meet and interact with the neighbors who have flats in the same building - Robert, a quiet scholarly man who volunteers as a guide at the cemetery in the back yard, and Martin, a designer of crossword puzzles who suffers from agoraphobia and OCD.
Elspeth's ghost haunts the flat, and the girls learn to communicate with her. Valentina feels dominated by Julia and longs to live a non-twin life. She and Elspeth concoct a shocking plan to allow Julia to escape.
Her Fearful Symmetry, though reasonably well written, never fully captured me. I would best describe it as tolerable but not enjoyable. The plot necessitates a suspension of disbelief, which is expected in the magic realism genre. However, Niffenegger failed to convince me to believe in the improbable scenario. I remained a scoffing cynic until the final sentence.
The characters were one dimensional and I never felt that I knew them. When Valentina's scheme began to unfold, the motives of those involved was unclear, and even improbable, because of the poor development of character.
What I was most impressed with was the way the author emphasized the theme of freedom. Martin overcame his agoraphobia and was able to travel to Amsterdam to reunite with his wife, Marijke, who had left when she was no longer able to cope with his dysfunction. Martin's freedom echoes through the lives of the other characters as the book ends and they each find their own form of liberty.
What I was most impressed with was the way the author emphasized the theme of freedom. Martin overcame his agoraphobia and was able to travel to Amsterdam to reunite with his wife, Marijke, who had left when she was no longer able to cope with his dysfunction. Martin's freedom echoes through the lives of the other characters as the book ends and they each find their own form of liberty.
RATING:
We read this one for book club this past fall and I felt much like you did....
ReplyDeleteI had to pop over and see your WHERE are you reading map - love it and I checked out your books too! Have fun!
Thanks for visiting Sheila. :) I think I'm going to fail miserably at the Where Are You Reading challenge; I seem to be a European girl. But I'm having fun with the MAP. ;)
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