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Marble Heart
A stunning piece of psychological suspense, focusing on two very different women brought together by a secret from the past. Joan has a tentative grip on the world -- she's too trusting, soft-centred, cheery and straightforward. By nature and by profession, Joan is a carer, employed to look after Nina Rawle, a crisp and sophisticated woman, stricken by a long-term illness. There is a very good reason why Joan has been taken on by Nina,having to do with Nina's tangled past in Northern Ireland. How and why Nina will reveal herself to Joan, and whose part in Nina's past is truly significant, makes for a tense and twisting tale.
296 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2000
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About the author
Gretta Mulrooney
40 books130 followersGretta Mulrooney (1952-2023) was a British author of mystery, thriller, and crime novels. Born and raised in London to Irish parents, Mulrooney began publishing novels in her 30s, working with publishers such as Poolberg Press, Harper Collins, and Joffre Books.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 8, 2016
By the time I got around to reading this book, I'd forgotten the summary. It's been a while that I started reading a book without any kind of idea what it might hold on its pages. The copy I picked up from the library afforded no summary to refresh my memory. Several chapters in and I still had no clue what the book was supposed to be about. So, it wasn't until I went to update Goodreads that I had any idea what it was about.
This book was difficult to get into, and it wasn't until the last fifty or so pages that it actually got relatively interesting. I say relatively because overall I found it quite boring. It's set in a time frame I have a hard time relating to and characters who present the same difficulty. It also spends a lot of time discussing details, listing foods, flowers, clothes and colors. Pages upon pages of descriptions that had my attention drifting instead of drawing me into the story. Personally, I think people of older generations would be able to relate better to the characters, time frame, and even the style of writing.
This book was difficult to get into, and it wasn't until the last fifty or so pages that it actually got relatively interesting. I say relatively because overall I found it quite boring. It's set in a time frame I have a hard time relating to and characters who present the same difficulty. It also spends a lot of time discussing details, listing foods, flowers, clothes and colors. Pages upon pages of descriptions that had my attention drifting instead of drawing me into the story. Personally, I think people of older generations would be able to relate better to the characters, time frame, and even the style of writing.
November 2, 2023
Marble Heart (2000) by Gretta Mulrooney
Marble Heart is a story of being sucked into a cause, manipulated by an egotistical leader, and seeking atonement in later life.
The story takes place in England and centers around Nina, a terminally ill teacher suffering from the advanced stages of lupus who in the past was a member of the Red Dawn, a small, mostly benign, pro-national revolutionary group based in Belfast, Northern Ireland amid the height of civil conflict and unrest of the 70s.
Owing to her illness, Nina enlists the help of Joan, a carer, to assist her with everyday tasks. The two soon become friends but unknown to Joan an event from the past has made Nina specifically choose Joan as her caregiver in order to eventually reveal the sins of her youth.
The novel goes back and forth between current events and the retelling of Nina’s past in a pseudo-epistolary form as she composes journal entries on her computer directed at both Majella, her estranged partner in crime from her Belfast days, and Martin, Nina’s estranged husband.
Review
For the most part it is well written. I enjoyed the central narrative based in Belfast even if passages felt long-winded and cumbersomely detailed at times. The contrast between the characters of Nina and Joan is supposedly a basis of the novel; however, Joan is essentially relegated to a background character after the first two chapters. It takes a while before the book really kicks off and we discover that the main focus is on Nina’s backstory. The majority of it follows a pattern of brief updates of her current condition and then diving into long passages of the past. It is broken up by in-between chapters flipping from past to present and for me it felt as though I was constantly taken out of one story and forced into another, seemingly irrelevant one up until the last chapter or two when the link between Nina and Joan is revealed.
The major critique I have of the novel is that it lacks a sense of tension owing to its retrospective and undulating method of storytelling. By the time of the big reveal I simply didn’t care as much as I should have, my mind was too inundated with superfluous descriptions. Why should I constantly need to be aware of all the different foods the characters like to eat and how they’re prepared? What importance does an in-depth description of the meticulous colors used in Joan’s apartment have that warrants breaking up the pacing? I found myself asking such questions every time I put the book down.
After finishing the novel, I couldn’t help but think that the story would have been more effectively told if it was laid out more sequentially by having the first part set in Belfast, narrated as it happened, and then following up with the events of the present. It would’ve maintained a sense of intrigue and much needed tension as readers wouldn’t have all the gaps filled in.
If I had to sum up Marble Heart I’d say it’s a potentially good story bogged down by a focus on minor details.
Marble Heart is a story of being sucked into a cause, manipulated by an egotistical leader, and seeking atonement in later life.
The story takes place in England and centers around Nina, a terminally ill teacher suffering from the advanced stages of lupus who in the past was a member of the Red Dawn, a small, mostly benign, pro-national revolutionary group based in Belfast, Northern Ireland amid the height of civil conflict and unrest of the 70s.
Owing to her illness, Nina enlists the help of Joan, a carer, to assist her with everyday tasks. The two soon become friends but unknown to Joan an event from the past has made Nina specifically choose Joan as her caregiver in order to eventually reveal the sins of her youth.
The novel goes back and forth between current events and the retelling of Nina’s past in a pseudo-epistolary form as she composes journal entries on her computer directed at both Majella, her estranged partner in crime from her Belfast days, and Martin, Nina’s estranged husband.
Review
For the most part it is well written. I enjoyed the central narrative based in Belfast even if passages felt long-winded and cumbersomely detailed at times. The contrast between the characters of Nina and Joan is supposedly a basis of the novel; however, Joan is essentially relegated to a background character after the first two chapters. It takes a while before the book really kicks off and we discover that the main focus is on Nina’s backstory. The majority of it follows a pattern of brief updates of her current condition and then diving into long passages of the past. It is broken up by in-between chapters flipping from past to present and for me it felt as though I was constantly taken out of one story and forced into another, seemingly irrelevant one up until the last chapter or two when the link between Nina and Joan is revealed.
The major critique I have of the novel is that it lacks a sense of tension owing to its retrospective and undulating method of storytelling. By the time of the big reveal I simply didn’t care as much as I should have, my mind was too inundated with superfluous descriptions. Why should I constantly need to be aware of all the different foods the characters like to eat and how they’re prepared? What importance does an in-depth description of the meticulous colors used in Joan’s apartment have that warrants breaking up the pacing? I found myself asking such questions every time I put the book down.
After finishing the novel, I couldn’t help but think that the story would have been more effectively told if it was laid out more sequentially by having the first part set in Belfast, narrated as it happened, and then following up with the events of the present. It would’ve maintained a sense of intrigue and much needed tension as readers wouldn’t have all the gaps filled in.
If I had to sum up Marble Heart I’d say it’s a potentially good story bogged down by a focus on minor details.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews