Balancing Act - Joanna Trollope

I used to adore Joanna Trollope's books and then I fell out of love with them a bit.  Recently a friend bought me Balancing Act.

I decided to read it with an open mind and I'm so glad I did.  I literally raced through it in a matter of days and if I'd had the time, could probably have read it in one sitting.

Susie Moran is a woman who owns her own pottery company making all kinds of tableware.  She has three grown up daughters who all work in the family business with her, along with one of her sons in law.  

Susie has always been very driven and likes to be in control  but it seems that her daughters have very different ideas about how the company should be run.

In Balancing Act Joanna Trollope achieves what she does best, exploring the family dynamic and how each member of that family are affected when circumstances change.  Her characterisation is brilliant and I found myself liking them all and sympathising with each one's point of view.  

It didn't have a fast paced plot because it didn't need it.  The characters were what drove the story and Joanna Trollope is definitely the master of characterisation.

Definitely a good read.

Updating The Classics

When I was studying A Level English Literature, Emma was one of our set texts. Our lecturer raved about Jane Austen’s prose, but for the life of me I didn’t get it.  Although I was an avid reader, I remember spending half term forcing myself to read a set number of chapters each day, just so I could get to the end of it.

Of course, with the benefit of age and experience, I can now agree with my lecturer regarding the quality of her writing.

Of all her novels, Sense and Sensibility is my favourite and a few years ago I toyed with the idea of updating the plot into a modern setting.

So much has been written about Pride and Prejudice that I thought the lesser-known Sense & Sensibility might be suitable gap in the market.  I didn’t get any further than my initial musings though and then I heard that The Austen Project had commissioned well-known writers to pen their own modern versions 

Joanna Trollope was asked to re-write Sense and Sensibility and whilst I was a little miffed that my own version would be null and void – if I’d ever got round to writing it that is – I couldn’t think of a better person to write it.

I received a copy for Christmas and decided to re-read the original before I began to read the new version.

And now I’ve read them both and I have to say, frankly, I was disappointed.

Joanna Trollope’s version is easy to read and is well-written, and at first I was fascinated by how she had transformed the plot of old into a modern day setting.  But as the story progressed I began to get rather frustrated with the characters themselves.

In Jane Austen’s day, unless they had an independent fortune, women really only had one option and that was to marry well.  If they could both marry well and be in love then that was the ideal outcome, but being in love definitely wasn’t a pre-requisite to marriage for many. And really, the men weren’t much better off. If they too didn’t have their own fortune or living, they would have to marry for money.  And then if they did have money they had to choose someone who would be fitting for their status.

But I don’t feel that a plotline based on this premise can be believably translated into the modern day.  In Joanna Trollope’s version, I found myself wanting to shout at the young single women to go out and get a job, and for the men whose relatives manipulated them by the threat of disinheritance, I wanted to shout for them to grow a backbone and follow their hearts.

So for me, unfortunately, this version of Sense and Sensibility didn’t really work.  I’m glad Joanna Trollope did it though because I think she did a much better job than I could ever have done

Val McDermid’s version of Northanger Abbey was published at the end of March and Curtis Sittenfield will be rewriting Pride and Prejudice, due out this autumn.

Despite my disappointment with the first book in the series, I would still be interested to read the rest, particularly Val McDermid’s version. Part of me still wonders though if you can’t actually better the originals. 

Has anyone else read these two, if so I’d be interested to hear what you think. 

Old or new?  What works best for you?

Books, books, books

Hi all

Yes, there's more book reviews on today's blog - I'm nearly catching up, I promise.

Here goes:

The Perfect Hero – Victoria Connelly

I loved A Weekend With Mr Darcy and couldn’t wait to read Victoria’s next novel. Knowing that it was based on Persuasion, I decided to re-read the original first. I’m glad I did because I hadn’t read Persuasion for a very long time and probably wouldn’t have ‘got’ some of the references if the novel hadn't been fresh in my mind.

I do love Austen, and anything which brings her characters into the present, which Victoria Connelly does so well, but I did find some of the plotting predictable. Within the modern day romance the big question is will our main character, Kay, end up with her perfect hero? Unfortunately I became so frustrated with Kay's blindness to who the real hero was that I kept wanting to shout out ‘he’s behind you!’ Despite that it was still an enjoyable read and it hasn’t put me off reading the next book in the trilogy, Mr Darcy Forever, which I have just downloaded onto my Kindle.

　

Daughters In Law

The last Joanna Trollope I read was Friday Nights. In the past I've been a big fan of Joanna Trollope but this book, quite frankly, bored me senseless. I kept reading it though, because I believed that it would, surely, get better. Sadly it didn't and this book put me off reading any future ones. However, this, and my next review, were recommended to me by a friend who's tastes are very similar to my own and so I decided to give it ago.

In style, Daughter's In Law was written very much in the style of Second Honeymoon, which was a book I loved. It is the story of a mother of three boys who has to deal with the fact that once they are all married, she is no longer the central person in their lives and takes second place in the new regime.

I must admit I did enjoy the book and it was definitely a page turner but it did annoy me the way the family over-analysed every single set-back in everyone's relationships. I think if my family behaved like this I would have to emigrate. However, then there would be no story. An enjoyable read nevertheless.

The Best Of Friends

This book, I think, was the better of the two. Its the story of two friends - one male, one female - who marry other people and have families. The two couples remain close friends but when one of the marriages breaks down the whole dynamic falls apart.

I really enjoyed this book and raced through it to the end and I was disappointed to turn the last page and leave the story behind, always the sign of a good read.

Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother - Sue Johnston

I'm not a lover of celebrity autobiographies but I was prepared to make an exception for Sue. I've been a big fan of hers since the start of Brookside and have loved the roles she has played in many other programmes since, especially Waking The Dead. I particularly admire her role in this programme because it highlights the benefit of the experience over youth. Anything which champions the older woman rather than casting her aside because she may not be in her first flush of youth is good in my book. Besides which, she seems to have a knack for choosing good programmes so I will always be interested in watching anything she appears in.

The writing style of this book is lovely. Sue draws you in with her down to earth voice and its easy to become a part of the picture she paints of her life. She is a northern girl, as I am, and was brought up not a million miles away from where I was. Even though we were brought up in different generations, I don't think that working class principles changed that much from her childhood to mine, and I easily identified with her family's values.

I can honestly say that I devoured this book. If I had had the time I would have read it in one sitting and, in fact, the only thing that prevented me from reading long into the night was that I couldn't resist reading bits out to my husband and he had an early start the next day so I took pity on him. I can thoroughly recommend this book and I would defy anyone not to enjoy it.

　

Well, that's all from me for now.  Enjoy your Sunday.

Linda