14 April, 2012

Radiance Shines


Margaret Drabble
I have taken several weeks to get through this book, which rather annoyed me as i didn’t want to, i just found it hard at times to pick it up, other books intruded, or life itself, or further activities (work! how often that cuts into my reading time!) and i ended up ignoring the reading i wanted to be doing. It was an interesting read, in that it seemed to break some of the “rules” and yet i enjoyed it and didn’t find that distracting or annoying (though i did notice, so perhaps in a way i was distracted). What i mean is that a lot of the story is rather “prosey”, telling about the lives of the three women at its centre, rather than telling the story. Perhaps it was necessary for Drabble to write it this way in order to cover the thirty-odd years of she wanted to, without having to go into too much detail or extend it too much.

Curiously, i have just this minute, as i prepare this review (written about four months ago ~ i'm not posting immediately as i write), discovered that this is the first book in a trilogy.  Guess i'll have to think about getting/reading the other two books.  Interesting.

No comments: