And here we have the follow-up book by the author of The Time Traveller’s Wife (great book, not so great film) and it’s a strange one. Review without spoilers follow…Book is about a twin who dies and in her will, leaves her flat to her sister’s twin daughters. Other people live in the block of flats, including the dead person’s lover and an OCD chap. A cat also turns up. Every one of them is written as quite a flawed, almost unlikeable person.
On page 1, the twin, Elspeth, dies and then stays away until page 63 out of a 387 page novel. This is not a fast paced book. In fact, if you think Defying Gravity moves slowly, this book will torture you. But I’m assuming it’s meant to be a character study, and if so it’s an interesting one because there isn’t a likeable character in the book. In fact, only the OCD chap has any real degree of sympathy.
Elspeth eventually comes back – partially – and appears to be quite the friendly ghost and the reactions to there being a ghost are fairly decent, with the obvious worry over ‘is she watching us all the time?’ and the book plods on with the ex falling for one of the new twins, the twins growing apart and OCD man trying to conquer his OCD.
There’s little bits of incident hung together under the guise of plot, but nothing that would get the pulse racing – even the first of the so-called twists that has been mentioned everyone online – is fairly easily guessed, the second is too and the third should be straight as well if you’ve noticed the title and twin behaviours.
The last 100 or so pages have more meat to them bones (har!) and it comes together decently but not spectacularly with a slight bit of open-endedness left for the reader (or rather a guessing ending).
It’s an overlong book and could easily have had 50-100 pages chopped out without loss, but I wonder if – due to the success of the TT Wife – that an editor would be afraid to chop anything and upset the writer?
Is it worth buying? I’d say get the paperback or put it on the Xmas list for someone to get you. It’s a decent read, it’s just not worth the hardback price. I don’t grudge it though as I bought the TT Wife in paperback and would happily have paid more for that one, so to me this is karma balancing things out.
NOTE: if anyone else who has read this wants to post spoilers in the comments section, feel free. I’m going to do that in the first post with a thought or two about what happened to the character on the last page and some just desserts…
8 responses to “Book Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger”
Right, it’s obvious that he’s dead and the last line about him not coming back makes it quite obvious that he isn’t returning to be with Elspeth as “his” place either, which means it has to be one of the following:
1) Where Mouse is
2) His flat
3) The graveyard
4) A N Other Place
1 would be tricky as he doesn’t know where she is or how to leave a property
2 doesn’t make sense either as he wasn’t as trapped as Martin appeared to be
3 seems a strange choice as despite all the work he put into the book of the place, there was no real attachment
which leaves two other options:
1) As he was fairly weak-willed, he just vanished and wasn’t able to hold himself together
2) And this is a fairly creepy idea… it’s pointed out that his child focused him… what if he took over the child just as Elspeth took over an adult?
One question sticks with me from the book: it’s implied at certain points there’s a dark feeling or dark presence with them – anyone got any hints/clues as to what that was meant to be?
(and yeah, I do think Elspeth’s plan for taking over the body was fairly obvious. I’m not convinced at all about the ‘she wouldn’t go back in’ angle.)
I still can’t work out if Elspeth getting away with posession is a suitable ending though or if she should have been punished…
Having just finished the latest Brookmyre (it’s so so), I’m about to start on this. Will come back and read post later!
Hmm not sure about him taking the baby but what i wished for was for Valentina to find Elspeth and take her body back! Also I found the crows part excruciating! I didn’t dislike the book entirely but equally I didn’t fall in love with it! Its no The Time Travelers Wife!
Agree that it’s no TTW!
Okay, I’m going to have to go back and read bits again, because it didn’t occur to me that Robert died.
And thinking about him taking the infant’s body, if it’s so easy for ghosts to kill us (as set out in the book) then why doesn’t that whole soul-swapping-thing happen more frequently? Does that mean I should trust ghosts less, now? 😉
I can’t think of where Robert would rather be.
As for Elspeth “getting away with the possession” she’s really trapped, now isn’t she? She’s trapped back in life without her love. Valentina is free and, for the first time, truly happy, so who’s to say it was a bad result for her? Martin manages to get free. Edie is freed from her guilt. So is Jack from his. Julia is freed to explore life and love. It strikes me that Elspeth may have got the raw end of the deal.
Yes, TTW was a whole different book that enchanted me in whole other ways. This one took a bit of time to catch hold, but once it did, I was entranced by Niffenegger’s layered characters who feel as if they are Niffenegger-esque. They truly aren’t characters who could be owned by anyone else.
Plus, I’m entirely intrigued by Highgate Cemetery, now. I may have to travel to London simply to go there.
It wasn’t as compelling a read as TTW, but the characters were certainly as satisfying.
It may be that he didn’t die, but that was the meaning I took from the end of it. As to where he ended up, I assumed it was Highgate, but if you read into it, there isn’t really one place more than another that Robert seemed really happy. He’s a very passive character for a lot of the book.
And I hadn’t thought of the notion of her being “trapped”. That’s an interesting take on it. Good spot.
Did you pick up on Edie & Elspeth’s father being dead of “head trauma”. I wondered if one of the twins “bashed his head in”. Just wondering . . . .
I hadn’t considered that Andy, but given those two you wouldn’t rule it out.