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Az évforduló
Az ausztrál író, J. B. Blackwood és férje egy hajóúttal ünneplik tizennegyedik házassági évfordulójukat. Patrick húsz évvel idősebb a feleségénél, elismert filmrendező, valóságos kultfigura, ám sikere épp akkor kezd megkopni, amikor J. B.-t jelentős irodalmi díjjal jutalmazzák önéletrajzi elemeket is tartalmazó regényéért. Amikor hajójuk viharba keveredik a japán partoknál, Patrick a vízbe zuhan, J. B. pedig hirtelen ott találja magát egy rendőrségi kihallgatás, majd nem sokkal később egy irodalmi díjátadó forgatagában, ahol minden szem rá szegeződik. Válaszokat keresve és férjét gyászolva J. B. végiggondolja megismerkedésük és házasságuk történetét, és számba vesz mindent, amit férje árnyékában fel kellett adnia. Az évforduló letehetetlenül izgalmas regény házasságon belüli dinamikákról, hazugságról és arról, milyen árat kell fizetnie egy kapcsolatnak az egyik fél sikeréért.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2023
216 people are currently reading
7093 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Bishop
11 books132 followersStephanie Bishop is a widely acclaimed novelist and critic. She is the award-winning author of four novels, The Singing (2005), The Other Side of the World (2015), Man Out Of Time (2018) and The Anniversary (2023).
She is the recipient of multiple prizes, including The Readings Prize for New Australian Writing, the Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (shortlisted), the Christina Stead Prize for fiction (shortlisted) and the Stella Prize (longlisted). Her work has been translated into four languages. In 2006 she was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists of the Year.
She has received fellowships to Yaddo, Tenjinyama Art Studio, Himachal Pradesh University, and Oxford University, where she was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Life Writing and holds a PhD from Cambridge University.
Bishop’s essays and fiction have appeared in the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The Monthly and the Sydney Review of Books, among other publications.
She is the recipient of multiple prizes, including The Readings Prize for New Australian Writing, the Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (shortlisted), the Christina Stead Prize for fiction (shortlisted) and the Stella Prize (longlisted). Her work has been translated into four languages. In 2006 she was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists of the Year.
She has received fellowships to Yaddo, Tenjinyama Art Studio, Himachal Pradesh University, and Oxford University, where she was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Life Writing and holds a PhD from Cambridge University.
Bishop’s essays and fiction have appeared in the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The Monthly and the Sydney Review of Books, among other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
July 21, 2023
This is a book I should have skipped. It's not a thriller. It's an overwrought, overly descriptive literary-style fiction novel.
No quotation marks. Excessive description of things that have no bearing on the thin plot.
At the beginning, I was really interested. A couple embarks on a cruise and he falls overboard--or was he pushed? But from there it just jumps around in time so we learn about how they got together and then jumps forward and backward and by the time I got to the end I felt like I, not Lucie, should have won a prize for getting through this exhausting book.
If you like introspection and meanderingly descriptive prose, you might like it. Not for me at all.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
No quotation marks. Excessive description of things that have no bearing on the thin plot.
At the beginning, I was really interested. A couple embarks on a cruise and he falls overboard--or was he pushed? But from there it just jumps around in time so we learn about how they got together and then jumps forward and backward and by the time I got to the end I felt like I, not Lucie, should have won a prize for getting through this exhausting book.
If you like introspection and meanderingly descriptive prose, you might like it. Not for me at all.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
May 12, 2023
“How much ambition can a woman lay claim to before she is ruined by it?”
“The Anniversary” succeeds where many thrillers fail, in my opinion. My mind was spinning - deeply engrossed - with this novel for a full week. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do this review it’s full justice……THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON. (I couldn’t rush through this book as others said they did —I had a lot of thinking to do — with the many storylines)…. ITS MUCH MORE THAN SUSPENSE…..but the suspense ‘is’ spellbinding. It’s also compelling in many other ways.
I suppose it’s fair to say it’s a ‘literary’-mixed-bag-genre-untraditional-thriller….with contemporary issues of marriage, (repression and rage), background history of the characters, a large cast of supporting characters, extended family drama….travel, art, (writing and film), as well as a forensics crime investigation, and courtroom case.
I’m awestricken by the layers of psychological depth, in “The Anniversary”. It’s chock-full complexities. The exquisite intracity of delaying & dangling the suspense with conscience-ridden artistry, scope, and candor, was brilliant.
Every turn in this story seems disquieting and unexpected.
I was constantly psychoanalyzing the characters - their relationships - and core events.
My poor husband — during my reading breaks, he became a springboard to my thoughts - as I was trying to figure out the utterly unpredictable incisive narrative ….
The beginning chapters move swiftly.
J.B. and Patrick were coming up on their fourteenth wedding anniversary. It was early October. An anniversary cruise was scheduled: eighteen days starting from Alaska….. leaving from London at the start.
J.B. had planned everything carefully. They would be crossing the Bering Sea, the coast of Russia, ending up in Osaka — then take a train to Kyoto. Finally ending up in Japan in November.
Two months later, in December, J.B. would be attending a literary awards event…the biggest international literary event of the year. It was usually held in London, but this year it would be in New York.
J.B. had advance notice from her publisher about receiving a literary prize for her new novel. She was asked to keep it secret, even from her husband.
J.B. had booked the cruise before learning of the prize she would be receiving. She only needed to tweak the itinerary a little to get to New York on time.
Their cruise would be the first extravagant thing J. B. and Patrick had ever done in their marriage. J.B. was looking forward to the celebration with Patrick. — and it was she who made all the arrangements.
Patrick was a film Director, with an honorary position at a prestigious, university, and over time, as his films grew more attention, pressures increased. He was hesitant at first to take a vacation—thinking all the hassles of packing- traveling to a port to stand in queues—dealing with strangers at mealtimes and at the pool, just didn’t seem worth it.
J.B. clearly wanted the vacation—-it took some persuading
as well as exhausting stress for Patrick to agree.
If I were to write about Patrick’s character — alone — i could write pages.
Patrick had a son from his first marriage (much more information about this)……but Joshua had been staying with J.B. and Patrick more often recently.
Joshua had once been an even-tempered child, now he was angry hating everything and everybody— manifesting loud screaming fits.
It was all so exhausting— that Patrick agreed to the vacation. J.B. made all the arrangements.
My thoughts never left this kid- Joshua. For different reasons - his minor character just never left me.
Other characters— stayed with me: J.B.’s sister May and her husband Adam — and their kids —and J.B.’s relationship with them all. Back home, in Australia with May…..J.B. is called by her first name: Lucie. (J.B. is what Lucie uses for publishing her books).
Patrick was a good twenty years older than JB. was.
When they first met, — in Australia- J.B. — a student — had just celebrated her twenty-fourth birthday. Patrick was forty-five — an American born professor teaching film studies— a temporary visiting scholar in Australia teaching a cinema class.
J.B. was enrolled in his class: Professor Patrick Heller.
There relationship begins in Australia— (J.B.’s home)
……eventually follows Patrick to London….back where he was teaching.
Early into reading this story, (which I was thoroughly enjoying right away), I noticed a couple of potential red flag — dubious-slothfulness-passivities in Patrick’s character.
I began to watch out for more — there were more …..but I was curious to see if I was truly picking up on a character-worrisome flaw — or not.
I trusted J.B’s character….. I didn’t even ‘suspect’ that she might be an unreliable character …. until way past half way…..
and even now —I’m not going to share my final thoughts about who I think was reliable and who wasn’t…
Only to say — ( but not wanting to share any spoilers)— I ended up feeling very sad — but I won’t share why.
The middle section is where I needed to slow down my reading -- there was just so much to take in.
I admit to having an old memory surface. Paul and I were on our honeymoon in maui. I got caught under a wave - and had absolutely no control of the water — I was down so long I was sure I was going to die on our honeymoon. After getting washed up to shore - my bathing top was gone. Believe me — being topless on a public beach was the last thing I was thinking.
…….There are some gripping scenes while at sea during a heavy storm. My body went into chills… it was so visual.
We KNOW SOMETHING is not right —
Once off the cruise itself is behind us -- the story takes on a new life of its own --
The ongoing ride — to the end had me wrestling and pondering thoughts and feelings with a crushing weight of —literally and figuratively — with the insurmountable psychological devastations.
Oh….but how I marvel in the Stephanie Bishop’s ability to deliver this story with great skill- intelligence and grace.
The fragility of her characters lives-seemed on the verge of rupture—any moment.
Looking forward to reading another book by Stephanie Bishop.
Note:
I’m sucking at this …writing reviews is getting hard. But I liked this book a lot.
“The Anniversary” succeeds where many thrillers fail, in my opinion. My mind was spinning - deeply engrossed - with this novel for a full week. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do this review it’s full justice……THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON. (I couldn’t rush through this book as others said they did —I had a lot of thinking to do — with the many storylines)…. ITS MUCH MORE THAN SUSPENSE…..but the suspense ‘is’ spellbinding. It’s also compelling in many other ways.
I suppose it’s fair to say it’s a ‘literary’-mixed-bag-genre-untraditional-thriller….with contemporary issues of marriage, (repression and rage), background history of the characters, a large cast of supporting characters, extended family drama….travel, art, (writing and film), as well as a forensics crime investigation, and courtroom case.
I’m awestricken by the layers of psychological depth, in “The Anniversary”. It’s chock-full complexities. The exquisite intracity of delaying & dangling the suspense with conscience-ridden artistry, scope, and candor, was brilliant.
Every turn in this story seems disquieting and unexpected.
I was constantly psychoanalyzing the characters - their relationships - and core events.
My poor husband — during my reading breaks, he became a springboard to my thoughts - as I was trying to figure out the utterly unpredictable incisive narrative ….
The beginning chapters move swiftly.
J.B. and Patrick were coming up on their fourteenth wedding anniversary. It was early October. An anniversary cruise was scheduled: eighteen days starting from Alaska….. leaving from London at the start.
J.B. had planned everything carefully. They would be crossing the Bering Sea, the coast of Russia, ending up in Osaka — then take a train to Kyoto. Finally ending up in Japan in November.
Two months later, in December, J.B. would be attending a literary awards event…the biggest international literary event of the year. It was usually held in London, but this year it would be in New York.
J.B. had advance notice from her publisher about receiving a literary prize for her new novel. She was asked to keep it secret, even from her husband.
J.B. had booked the cruise before learning of the prize she would be receiving. She only needed to tweak the itinerary a little to get to New York on time.
Their cruise would be the first extravagant thing J. B. and Patrick had ever done in their marriage. J.B. was looking forward to the celebration with Patrick. — and it was she who made all the arrangements.
Patrick was a film Director, with an honorary position at a prestigious, university, and over time, as his films grew more attention, pressures increased. He was hesitant at first to take a vacation—thinking all the hassles of packing- traveling to a port to stand in queues—dealing with strangers at mealtimes and at the pool, just didn’t seem worth it.
J.B. clearly wanted the vacation—-it took some persuading
as well as exhausting stress for Patrick to agree.
If I were to write about Patrick’s character — alone — i could write pages.
Patrick had a son from his first marriage (much more information about this)……but Joshua had been staying with J.B. and Patrick more often recently.
Joshua had once been an even-tempered child, now he was angry hating everything and everybody— manifesting loud screaming fits.
It was all so exhausting— that Patrick agreed to the vacation. J.B. made all the arrangements.
My thoughts never left this kid- Joshua. For different reasons - his minor character just never left me.
Other characters— stayed with me: J.B.’s sister May and her husband Adam — and their kids —and J.B.’s relationship with them all. Back home, in Australia with May…..J.B. is called by her first name: Lucie. (J.B. is what Lucie uses for publishing her books).
Patrick was a good twenty years older than JB. was.
When they first met, — in Australia- J.B. — a student — had just celebrated her twenty-fourth birthday. Patrick was forty-five — an American born professor teaching film studies— a temporary visiting scholar in Australia teaching a cinema class.
J.B. was enrolled in his class: Professor Patrick Heller.
There relationship begins in Australia— (J.B.’s home)
……eventually follows Patrick to London….back where he was teaching.
Early into reading this story, (which I was thoroughly enjoying right away), I noticed a couple of potential red flag — dubious-slothfulness-passivities in Patrick’s character.
I began to watch out for more — there were more …..but I was curious to see if I was truly picking up on a character-worrisome flaw — or not.
I trusted J.B’s character….. I didn’t even ‘suspect’ that she might be an unreliable character …. until way past half way…..
and even now —I’m not going to share my final thoughts about who I think was reliable and who wasn’t…
Only to say — ( but not wanting to share any spoilers)— I ended up feeling very sad — but I won’t share why.
The middle section is where I needed to slow down my reading -- there was just so much to take in.
I admit to having an old memory surface. Paul and I were on our honeymoon in maui. I got caught under a wave - and had absolutely no control of the water — I was down so long I was sure I was going to die on our honeymoon. After getting washed up to shore - my bathing top was gone. Believe me — being topless on a public beach was the last thing I was thinking.
…….There are some gripping scenes while at sea during a heavy storm. My body went into chills… it was so visual.
We KNOW SOMETHING is not right —
Once off the cruise itself is behind us -- the story takes on a new life of its own --
The ongoing ride — to the end had me wrestling and pondering thoughts and feelings with a crushing weight of —literally and figuratively — with the insurmountable psychological devastations.
Oh….but how I marvel in the Stephanie Bishop’s ability to deliver this story with great skill- intelligence and grace.
The fragility of her characters lives-seemed on the verge of rupture—any moment.
Looking forward to reading another book by Stephanie Bishop.
Note:
I’m sucking at this …writing reviews is getting hard. But I liked this book a lot.
April 9, 2023
2.5 stars
Very disappointed in this book. I read two reviews which described it as dynamic and exciting. For me it was neither.
The first part which describes the actual incident is pretty good and the end which describes a part of the trial is okay too but the middle section (most of the book) is just like listening to someone talking to themselves, justifying their actions.
I found quite a lot of the "action" completely incomprehensible. Why, I asked myself, would you spend weeks flying all over the world, going to parties and accepting accolades if you were broken by the death of your husband. Even somebody pretending to be heartbroken wouldn't do that no matter how much they thought they "deserved" it.
It took long enough to plough through to what had happened to the narrator as a child, which she constantly alludes to. I am still totally in the dark about what happened in her teens, which she mentions then seems to forget about.
This book was simply not for me. The two stars are for finishing it and it not giving me a headache (although I did roll my eyes an awful lot). The half is for the bits I did enjoy.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC but I won't be rushing to read more by this author.
Very disappointed in this book. I read two reviews which described it as dynamic and exciting. For me it was neither.
The first part which describes the actual incident is pretty good and the end which describes a part of the trial is okay too but the middle section (most of the book) is just like listening to someone talking to themselves, justifying their actions.
I found quite a lot of the "action" completely incomprehensible. Why, I asked myself, would you spend weeks flying all over the world, going to parties and accepting accolades if you were broken by the death of your husband. Even somebody pretending to be heartbroken wouldn't do that no matter how much they thought they "deserved" it.
It took long enough to plough through to what had happened to the narrator as a child, which she constantly alludes to. I am still totally in the dark about what happened in her teens, which she mentions then seems to forget about.
This book was simply not for me. The two stars are for finishing it and it not giving me a headache (although I did roll my eyes an awful lot). The half is for the bits I did enjoy.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC but I won't be rushing to read more by this author.
October 3, 2022
I wanted to sit on this book after finishing it and before writing my review. Bishop's writing tends to do that to me. I remember needing to do the same thing after reading Man Out Of Time. There's a subtlety to her writing that can lull you into thinking not much is happening. But there are clues in there that a lot is happening. It's a slow meandering reveal. Bishop drops bread crumbs very gently, some of which are easy to miss. I found myself reading later passages and thinking "wait on, didn't...[cue something that happened earlier and that very quietly telegraphed this very event?]". So if this style of writing appeals to you, you will enjoy this book. If you find this annoying and cumbersome, then you might want to try another book.
I read one of the "teasers" for this book stating it is about the writing process. It is true, the novel is full of passages about writing and more importantly about how two of the characters enable each other to write. However, I have always found that books about the writing process are also about so much more. They are also about how we create our own narratives about ourselves and the things we have done, the good and the bad; how we tell ourselves and others our story. In this story, you do get hints of what happened, but the reveal is paced by Lucie's ability to face what has happened.
This allows the space for other issues or themes to develop. So this story is about more than what happened, but how it came to happen. Into this space comes questions about power dynamics in relationships and how they shift. And also how the genesis of a relationship can have a real impact on the passage of the relationship. I will not be spoiling the story by saying that there is a power imbalance at the beginning of Lucie's relationship her husband. I think this set up a really interesting dynamic between them, how they came to be indispensable to each other but how this genesis may have also sown the seeds for its future challenges.
Another interesting theme is who gets the final say on the 'correct version'. This harks back to the issue around power dynamics in relationships. I was asking myself, if others do not accept your version, how do you live with your contrary version?
I really enjoyed this book as I do enjoy Bishop's style of writing and the slow reveal. If this is something that appeals to you, this may well be a book you will enjoy.
I read one of the "teasers" for this book stating it is about the writing process. It is true, the novel is full of passages about writing and more importantly about how two of the characters enable each other to write. However, I have always found that books about the writing process are also about so much more. They are also about how we create our own narratives about ourselves and the things we have done, the good and the bad; how we tell ourselves and others our story. In this story, you do get hints of what happened, but the reveal is paced by Lucie's ability to face what has happened.
This allows the space for other issues or themes to develop. So this story is about more than what happened, but how it came to happen. Into this space comes questions about power dynamics in relationships and how they shift. And also how the genesis of a relationship can have a real impact on the passage of the relationship. I will not be spoiling the story by saying that there is a power imbalance at the beginning of Lucie's relationship her husband. I think this set up a really interesting dynamic between them, how they came to be indispensable to each other but how this genesis may have also sown the seeds for its future challenges.
Another interesting theme is who gets the final say on the 'correct version'. This harks back to the issue around power dynamics in relationships. I was asking myself, if others do not accept your version, how do you live with your contrary version?
I really enjoyed this book as I do enjoy Bishop's style of writing and the slow reveal. If this is something that appeals to you, this may well be a book you will enjoy.
April 5, 2023
I was drowning in description, never mind her husband! I’ve never felt this frustrated with a book. It felt like underneath there was a brilliant story but it was almost impossible to find.
When you’ve written 2 pages on watching a child’s swimming lesson that has no relevance to the story….you know you need to tone the descriptive hyperbole down!
When you’ve written 2 pages on watching a child’s swimming lesson that has no relevance to the story….you know you need to tone the descriptive hyperbole down!
July 28, 2023
The Anniversary is the fourth novel by award-winning Australian author, Stephanie Bishop. After a decade and a half of writing, Lucie Blackwood is about to win a prestigious literary award. But, as she and her husband of fourteen years, Patrick Heller celebrate their anniversary with a cruise just before the award ceremony, tragedy strikes: Patrick, thoroughly drunk, falls overboard during a storm in Russian waters just north of Japan.
In the aftermath, numb with grief, she encounters quite a few people remarkably devoid of empathy, and one or two who care, before her agent rescues her. In quick succession she travels to New York City, London and Sydney.
Lucie, whose name the reader doesn’t learn until halfway through, might be an unreliable narrator: “…too often I doubt my own version of events. There are things I did not wholly remember, but which I am sure did happen – there is an outline of them in my head, but the content is missing. There are things I am sure I once remembered differently to how I recall them now.” Or maybe she’s just dishonest by omission early in her narrative.
Is her graphic description of sex with Patrick before his death calculated, meant to distract the investigating officer in Sapporo? For a freshly widowed woman, she certainly makes some strange choices around attending an awards night, a party, consenting to a phone interview, a TV appearance and several book promotion events, and her publicists seem more interested in book promotion than the welfare of their grieving author.
It’s difficult to find any appealing characters in this tale: Patrick seems to have been a controlling figure sculpting Lucie to his own purposes: “He seemed, to me, to have all the knowledge that I wanted for myself, that I needed. He knew what books I should read and what places I should visit, the films I should watch. He prided himself on giving me experiences, he took pleasure in this.”
The story inches along with numerous lengthy, often deeply analytical, introspective digressions that perhaps add mood or background but might frustrate the impatient reader wanting the promised “propulsive page-turner” of the blurb. For most of the book, the only mysteries the reader will really want solved are the disappearance of Lucie’s mother, only vaguely hinted at, and what terrible thing Patrick said to Lucie before he went overboard, finally revealed to patient readers at the 85% mark.
Bishop does give the reader some beautiful prose, but chooses to omit quote marks for speech, an increasingly popular trend that many readers find irritating for the ambiguity it causes. A psychological thriller this is not, but it may appeal to those who enjoy high-brow literary fiction and, with its emphatic author perspective, to authors. Plenty of frills but no thrills.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.
In the aftermath, numb with grief, she encounters quite a few people remarkably devoid of empathy, and one or two who care, before her agent rescues her. In quick succession she travels to New York City, London and Sydney.
Lucie, whose name the reader doesn’t learn until halfway through, might be an unreliable narrator: “…too often I doubt my own version of events. There are things I did not wholly remember, but which I am sure did happen – there is an outline of them in my head, but the content is missing. There are things I am sure I once remembered differently to how I recall them now.” Or maybe she’s just dishonest by omission early in her narrative.
Is her graphic description of sex with Patrick before his death calculated, meant to distract the investigating officer in Sapporo? For a freshly widowed woman, she certainly makes some strange choices around attending an awards night, a party, consenting to a phone interview, a TV appearance and several book promotion events, and her publicists seem more interested in book promotion than the welfare of their grieving author.
It’s difficult to find any appealing characters in this tale: Patrick seems to have been a controlling figure sculpting Lucie to his own purposes: “He seemed, to me, to have all the knowledge that I wanted for myself, that I needed. He knew what books I should read and what places I should visit, the films I should watch. He prided himself on giving me experiences, he took pleasure in this.”
The story inches along with numerous lengthy, often deeply analytical, introspective digressions that perhaps add mood or background but might frustrate the impatient reader wanting the promised “propulsive page-turner” of the blurb. For most of the book, the only mysteries the reader will really want solved are the disappearance of Lucie’s mother, only vaguely hinted at, and what terrible thing Patrick said to Lucie before he went overboard, finally revealed to patient readers at the 85% mark.
Bishop does give the reader some beautiful prose, but chooses to omit quote marks for speech, an increasingly popular trend that many readers find irritating for the ambiguity it causes. A psychological thriller this is not, but it may appeal to those who enjoy high-brow literary fiction and, with its emphatic author perspective, to authors. Plenty of frills but no thrills.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.
June 15, 2023
I can see what Stephanie Bishop is trying to do with this book, but I found the central character and narrator (J.B. or Lucie) extremely unlikeable, and the long descriptive accounts extremely boring. In some ways it reads like a nightmare since so much of it is the character’s thoughts as the events in her life spiral in ever worse ways (first her husband Patrick appearing to lose interest, then the death on the cruise, then the follow up trek in Japan to view his body and unsympathetic questioning by the police, then book events that she goes through saying the wrong thing while still dazed with grief, a stay with her sister where that family’s dynamics also disturb her, and finally a trial and imprisonment). Reading it as a nightmare would make sense of the fact that so many of these steps beg credibility (not being saved from or rescued from the many public appearances immediately after her husband’s death; the way she immediately talks about sex in graphic detail to her Japanese interrogators; the ineptness of her defence lawyer given there is only the most flimsy circumstantial evidence of guilt) . But at the same time JB/Lucie narrates as a kind of authorial voice that is analytical and detached and points out reflections on and ways of reading scenes via analogies with film-making, as well as rewriting and understanding her own history with Patrick through a critical feminist lens. She comes across as extremely naïve and passive (both in her early relationship with Patrick and in the later scenes) and also as extremely stubborn in insisting on behaving in ways that are harmful. There are mysteries related to her childhood background, and the inevitable issues about having a child and male fame, but it was not enjoyable to read. In some ways it is a strange book since it is combining a quite heavy handed feminist theme with a narrator who seems unbelievably unable to take any likely steps in her own interests.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2023
I want to talk about a writer’s third or fourth book. We talk so much about debuts and that hard second book and we don’t make a big enough deal about the magic that can happen with a third or fourth book. I really enjoyed Bishop’s early work. She’s a beautiful writer. And with her fourth book she has reached, she has truly stretched, and it’s amazing. The confidence and skill it took to write this book is breathtaking and not something a young person writing their first book could achieve. The book starts with a couple on a cruise seemingly taking a trip to both celebrate and save their marriage. But nothing is what it seems and we follow our protagonist in a dream state fog after her husband plunges to his death. The novel explores what is often for a straight woman some of the most significant relationships of her life; that with her mother, her sister, her husband. Everything is hazy and confused in the wake of the accident until the clear-eyed clarity that comes at the end when we find out what really happened both with regard to the accident and the marriage. The Anniversary contains two writerly tropes I usually dislike: a writer protagonist and an older professor married to a young student. Neither bothered me that much here and I think that’s because they were so much a part of the narrative that it couldn’t have been any other way. This book brought to mind Wolitzer’s The Wife and Groff’s Fate and Furies.
July 25, 2023
TOO MUCH DEBRIS
Character is too mental for me to read this. Detective asks her about the last time she saw her husband and she goes into pages of description of their sexual activities. I like there to be a story in my books but this one seemed stalled by the character herself. It was like a train that had to keep stopping because of debris on the tracks. I DNF.
Character is too mental for me to read this. Detective asks her about the last time she saw her husband and she goes into pages of description of their sexual activities. I like there to be a story in my books but this one seemed stalled by the character herself. It was like a train that had to keep stopping because of debris on the tracks. I DNF.
July 20, 2023
2.5 rounded down. Way too much logorrhea interrupting what otherwise might have been an engaging story. Skim read a lot of it
September 8, 2023
This book is billed as a psychological thriller, but the emphasis is far more on the psychology, unless you consider waiting to find out what actually happened at the moment of crisis as thrilling. And the author really does make you wait for it, as this is a first-person narrative recounted by a most unreliable narrator, who only gradually reveals, one crucial tidbit after another—drop by drop—the events of the moment in question. Rather, it’s the account of a complex marriage and of the development of a powerful artistic skill, where nothing is as it first appears, and the insightful examination of the expectations of and the costs exacted from women by the institution of marriage and by making art.
J.B. Blackwood is a novelist married to a filmmaker much older than she, as she was his student when they met. They’ve been married for 14 years, and in the years since, he has become a much-lauded cult figure, and she has published several novels, the most recent of which—not yet released—is about to win a major literary prize, she has been informed. (The prize goes unnamed in the book, but think of something at the level of the Man Booker and you have it.) In short, her star is most assuredly on the rise, while his has rather lost its shine, and the strain on their marriage is growing. So she arranges for a long anniversary cruise to try to patch things up, and while they’re plying the cold waters off Japan, the husband goes overboard during a terrible storm. In intense shock, she is at first unable—or is it unwilling?—to recall what happened on deck in the moments leading up to the fall, and, as her mind courses over the events, she goes back in time and creates that portrait of a marriage and incrementally approaches the critical moment.
Don’t read this if you’re looking for a thriller, but if you’re interested in a nuanced, insightful look at the power dynamics in a marriage of two ambitious artists and of the struggle female artists face to be taken seriously, this is the book for you.
J.B. Blackwood is a novelist married to a filmmaker much older than she, as she was his student when they met. They’ve been married for 14 years, and in the years since, he has become a much-lauded cult figure, and she has published several novels, the most recent of which—not yet released—is about to win a major literary prize, she has been informed. (The prize goes unnamed in the book, but think of something at the level of the Man Booker and you have it.) In short, her star is most assuredly on the rise, while his has rather lost its shine, and the strain on their marriage is growing. So she arranges for a long anniversary cruise to try to patch things up, and while they’re plying the cold waters off Japan, the husband goes overboard during a terrible storm. In intense shock, she is at first unable—or is it unwilling?—to recall what happened on deck in the moments leading up to the fall, and, as her mind courses over the events, she goes back in time and creates that portrait of a marriage and incrementally approaches the critical moment.
Don’t read this if you’re looking for a thriller, but if you’re interested in a nuanced, insightful look at the power dynamics in a marriage of two ambitious artists and of the struggle female artists face to be taken seriously, this is the book for you.
April 27, 2023
I went into this with the wrong impression, expecting dramatic reveals and scandalous secrets of the tragically deceased husband. While there is some of that, this was a psychological portrait of a woman unraveling.
I was mad at this book. Mad at the slow pace, the meandering, the going on and on in details and thoughts and streams of consciousness and mad at how well it worked. It felt like being inside J.B.’s head, completely absorbed in her train of thought and accepting her logic while at the same time looking, as the reader, from the outside and seeing everything work against her.
I deeply enjoyed the commentary on marriage, family, writing, literature, art in general… Really, this novel goes through a lot of topics and none of them I found unnecessary, once I really got into it. The jumping from point to point in time and stopping to expand and spend time on these themes is something I’m very partial to, but know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
That being said, it did take me a minute to get into it (mostly because I had to adjust my expectations), until almost halfway through. The second half was fantastic, and then the very end picked up speed and left me wanting a bit more, which was funny considering how long it took me to read the book. Still, this is such a layered, complex story that jolted me and left me thinking too much to put into words right now. I just know it made me mad how much I loved it.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
I was mad at this book. Mad at the slow pace, the meandering, the going on and on in details and thoughts and streams of consciousness and mad at how well it worked. It felt like being inside J.B.’s head, completely absorbed in her train of thought and accepting her logic while at the same time looking, as the reader, from the outside and seeing everything work against her.
I deeply enjoyed the commentary on marriage, family, writing, literature, art in general… Really, this novel goes through a lot of topics and none of them I found unnecessary, once I really got into it. The jumping from point to point in time and stopping to expand and spend time on these themes is something I’m very partial to, but know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
That being said, it did take me a minute to get into it (mostly because I had to adjust my expectations), until almost halfway through. The second half was fantastic, and then the very end picked up speed and left me wanting a bit more, which was funny considering how long it took me to read the book. Still, this is such a layered, complex story that jolted me and left me thinking too much to put into words right now. I just know it made me mad how much I loved it.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
August 4, 2023
There was absolutely no reason for this self indulgent rambling mass to be released. I enjoy books with a lot of detail, good descriptions and a plot that doesn’t just state what’s going to happen. There was some merit to that but unfortunately, it was lost in pages and pages of repetitive nonsense. The repetitive nature of the story did not allude to mental illness or racing thoughts, or anything the author seemed to think. It took away from the story and made it unbearable. I’ve read reviews as well as criticisms saying the book is actually supposed to be about the writing process and it does definitely cover that however, why use 400+ pages to say what could be easily covered in 200 without losing anything… it felt very much like an attempt to be a modern day Beckett but was totally off putting. The story would have been good and interesting but the pages and pages of ridiculous descriptions and ramblings made it painful.
April 16, 2023
The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop is a novel that - I suspect - could divide its readers. Including me. I mean, it's not that I didn't like it because I certainly did. But my various personalities prevaricated between adoring Bishop's glorious writing; feeling frustrated at things obviously being kept from readers or made little sense (which could potentially be plotholes); while at the same time wondering if I'm too obtuse to understand the not-necessarily-logical order in which elements of the plot flowed.
Though the narrative here is delivered in a logical way, a lot of stuff just didn't make sense. From the lack of support JB gets in the wake of her husband's death (from officials and the shipping company) to the way in which she continues with events in her life in the days after his death, as if nothing has happened. It was borderline farcical in some ways... though I was also conscious she was seemingly incapable of making decisions.
In addition to Bishop's writing I enjoyed the insight we got into marriage and professional partnerships, particularly when one partner has more power than the other. JB and her husband collaborated in their work and there's a sense their relationship became more about that professional codependence than affection and romance.
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
Though the narrative here is delivered in a logical way, a lot of stuff just didn't make sense. From the lack of support JB gets in the wake of her husband's death (from officials and the shipping company) to the way in which she continues with events in her life in the days after his death, as if nothing has happened. It was borderline farcical in some ways... though I was also conscious she was seemingly incapable of making decisions.
In addition to Bishop's writing I enjoyed the insight we got into marriage and professional partnerships, particularly when one partner has more power than the other. JB and her husband collaborated in their work and there's a sense their relationship became more about that professional codependence than affection and romance.
3.5 stars
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...
May 16, 2024
Rarely have so many words been used to say so little. I suppose there is a good story in here somewhere, but it’s been overwhelmed by the author’s verbosity. Why use two words to describe something when you can use three or four? Very disappointing novel that doesn’t come close to living up to the hype.
March 22, 2024
An Anniversary cruise - man overboard makes for a page turning read. The story is told by wife, known as JB, an author on the cusp of winning a big literary prize and tells of her marriage to celebrated film maker, Patrick.
Inevitably, hearing one side of the story and the workings of a marriage gives us an archetypical unreliable narrator. Whilst page turning, I found the detached writing style for such a huge and fast moving story curious. There is very little dialogue just chunks of long paragraphed text which was often lacklustre in terms of tempo and emotion.
The flip side was that it captured perfectly the power imbalance in the relationship and how it affected the relationship as her star rose whilst his was waning. The changing perspective was handled with great skill and insight revealing to the reader insights that the protagonists may not have grasped contemporaneously.
Inevitably, hearing one side of the story and the workings of a marriage gives us an archetypical unreliable narrator. Whilst page turning, I found the detached writing style for such a huge and fast moving story curious. There is very little dialogue just chunks of long paragraphed text which was often lacklustre in terms of tempo and emotion.
The flip side was that it captured perfectly the power imbalance in the relationship and how it affected the relationship as her star rose whilst his was waning. The changing perspective was handled with great skill and insight revealing to the reader insights that the protagonists may not have grasped contemporaneously.
December 4, 2023
The publisher's decision to market The Anniversary as a psychological thriller--a conceit that the NY Times reviewer, among others, has oddly endorsed--will mean that this novel may fail to find the readers who will appreciate it. It has a suspense novel trope: a man falls (is pushed?) overboard during a storm at sea, and his wife comes under suspicion for failing to save him and for her odd affect in the wake of his death. Patrick is a filmmaker and former film professor; J.B. (we later learn her family calls her Lucie) is a novelist who was his student when their affair began nearly two decades earlier. Now they have been married for fourteen years and she begs him to celebrate their anniversary with a cruise to Japan; he reluctantly agrees, and in the early chapters of the novel there are only the slightest glimmerings of the state of their marriage, and of the havoc wreaked by his teenage son's recent spate of tantrums.
But then, within a few dozen pages, the thriller set-up is abandoned for something much odder and more wonderfully inventive: an extended meditation on what it is to be a creative woman with outsized ambitions in a world that restricts female writers to particular topics, genres, and approaches. J.B. has written a number of novels, all in some way informed by her own life experiences, but refracted through her invention and revision. She resists the call of interviewers to identify them as merely autobiographical, even while the central crisis of her early life--her mother's unexplained disappearance, perhaps but not necessarily voluntarily, when she was still a young child--echoes through her books.
And now there is this second disaster, and critics (both literary and more personal) are turning to her books to perceive in them the seeds of her husband's fate.
Bishop writes gorgeously about writing and about marriage. And in the novel's most metafictional moments, the narrator takes whole conversations and turns them into scenes in her work in progress. We don't learn much about this book's contents, but we are told from the beginning of the book that the manuscript has been awarded a prestigious international award; the narrator's decision to accept the award in person, mere days after her husband's death, can be viewed alternately as brave or cruelly indifferent. But that's not our experience of it as readers, because we are up close (close-ups in film are a recurring preoccupation) as she makes her complicated, fraught decisions while navigating exhaustion and nausea and an unexpectedly devastating profile in the New Yorker. And later we learn about the novel's Acknowledgements section, in which the author claws back some credit by indicating that one reason for the novel's lengthy gestation was the amount of time and effort poured into supporting her husband's creative endeavours.
I didn't always enjoy living inside this book: it's overheated and claustrophobic. But I kept marvelling at what Bishop is doing with words, with how carefully she is constructing an entire theory of the differences and similarities between fiction and film. In one brilliant passage, she dissects the difference between conversation in real life and dialogue. And I do rather wish that the book had been marketed, then, as a book about women writing and how looking at the world as a writer creates both distance and intimacy. These are fascinating topics, and Bishop handles them with brio and wit and insight. But they slow the pacing of the novel down in a way that a reader who lugs this novel to the beach for a light read may not appreciate.
But then, within a few dozen pages, the thriller set-up is abandoned for something much odder and more wonderfully inventive: an extended meditation on what it is to be a creative woman with outsized ambitions in a world that restricts female writers to particular topics, genres, and approaches. J.B. has written a number of novels, all in some way informed by her own life experiences, but refracted through her invention and revision. She resists the call of interviewers to identify them as merely autobiographical, even while the central crisis of her early life--her mother's unexplained disappearance, perhaps but not necessarily voluntarily, when she was still a young child--echoes through her books.
And now there is this second disaster, and critics (both literary and more personal) are turning to her books to perceive in them the seeds of her husband's fate.
Bishop writes gorgeously about writing and about marriage. And in the novel's most metafictional moments, the narrator takes whole conversations and turns them into scenes in her work in progress. We don't learn much about this book's contents, but we are told from the beginning of the book that the manuscript has been awarded a prestigious international award; the narrator's decision to accept the award in person, mere days after her husband's death, can be viewed alternately as brave or cruelly indifferent. But that's not our experience of it as readers, because we are up close (close-ups in film are a recurring preoccupation) as she makes her complicated, fraught decisions while navigating exhaustion and nausea and an unexpectedly devastating profile in the New Yorker. And later we learn about the novel's Acknowledgements section, in which the author claws back some credit by indicating that one reason for the novel's lengthy gestation was the amount of time and effort poured into supporting her husband's creative endeavours.
I didn't always enjoy living inside this book: it's overheated and claustrophobic. But I kept marvelling at what Bishop is doing with words, with how carefully she is constructing an entire theory of the differences and similarities between fiction and film. In one brilliant passage, she dissects the difference between conversation in real life and dialogue. And I do rather wish that the book had been marketed, then, as a book about women writing and how looking at the world as a writer creates both distance and intimacy. These are fascinating topics, and Bishop handles them with brio and wit and insight. But they slow the pacing of the novel down in a way that a reader who lugs this novel to the beach for a light read may not appreciate.
April 21, 2023
Looking at the reviews, this appears to be a marmite book! I really enjoyed it.
It tells the story of JB Blackwood, a successful author who has just been nominated for a literary prize. Prior to the winner of the award being announced, she decides to take a holiday with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their anniversary. Whilst on their cruise, they hit a freak storm & Patrick is washed overboard.
The book starts off with a seemingly idyllic relationship between JB and Patrick. However, following Patrick’s disappearance, we are then given further analysis of their real relationship and realise not everything was as it seemed. There are many further elements to The Anniversary which I don’t want to delve into due to spoilers.
I found The Anniversary well written & the characters given real depth, although I wouldn’t necessarily say that any of them are likeable (but I’m ok with that!). It’s a shame, to me, that this book isn’t getting more attention - I really liked it!
It tells the story of JB Blackwood, a successful author who has just been nominated for a literary prize. Prior to the winner of the award being announced, she decides to take a holiday with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their anniversary. Whilst on their cruise, they hit a freak storm & Patrick is washed overboard.
The book starts off with a seemingly idyllic relationship between JB and Patrick. However, following Patrick’s disappearance, we are then given further analysis of their real relationship and realise not everything was as it seemed. There are many further elements to The Anniversary which I don’t want to delve into due to spoilers.
I found The Anniversary well written & the characters given real depth, although I wouldn’t necessarily say that any of them are likeable (but I’m ok with that!). It’s a shame, to me, that this book isn’t getting more attention - I really liked it!
July 20, 2023
Felt this novel was a bit slow and never really got going but did have some interesting parts
April 24, 2023
Well this was a fascinating and genre defying novel. It felt slow at times and yet I powered through it in 2 days (admittedly those days involved a hospital and lots of waiting time). The Anniversary is by Australian author Stephanie Bishop and while I’m not 100% sure I know what to make of it I did really enjoy it.
In short the book is about author JB Blackwood who is on a cruise with her film director husband Patrick celebrating their anniversary. While initially Patrick was the one whose career shone the brightest, JB is about to win a major literary prize and perhaps the balance of creative power has shifted. For several days they enjoy the cruise and each other’s company and then one night there is a storm and Patrick falls overboard. His death sets in motion a reckoning of their life together and their marriage.
I found The Anniversary a perplexing mix of genres. Is this literary fiction about writers and novels? Is it a mystery? Is it a comment on society and the exchange of power between unequal (initially) partners? Is it a psychological drama? What is memory and what is fiction? I have so many questions!
The author sets out to make JB an unreliable narrator. Told from her POV, there are repetitive themes and repetitive thoughts but this definitely seems by design. JB’s inability to function under pressure eventually becomes quite maddening yet I couldn’t stop reading. This sometimes manifested in very long rambling sentences full of deep thoughts. This usually would turn me off completely but here it didn’t.
It also becomes a kind of unpacking about what constitutes a marriage. I especially liked the way Bishop showed the enmeshing of each other’s creative ideas until you can’t tell where one person's talent ends and the other begins.
I’m not sure I am doing this books justice in this review. I don’t think it will be for everyone and I’m not sure the ending totally worked for me but like I said earlier I couldn’t put it down. A very interesting read!
In short the book is about author JB Blackwood who is on a cruise with her film director husband Patrick celebrating their anniversary. While initially Patrick was the one whose career shone the brightest, JB is about to win a major literary prize and perhaps the balance of creative power has shifted. For several days they enjoy the cruise and each other’s company and then one night there is a storm and Patrick falls overboard. His death sets in motion a reckoning of their life together and their marriage.
I found The Anniversary a perplexing mix of genres. Is this literary fiction about writers and novels? Is it a mystery? Is it a comment on society and the exchange of power between unequal (initially) partners? Is it a psychological drama? What is memory and what is fiction? I have so many questions!
The author sets out to make JB an unreliable narrator. Told from her POV, there are repetitive themes and repetitive thoughts but this definitely seems by design. JB’s inability to function under pressure eventually becomes quite maddening yet I couldn’t stop reading. This sometimes manifested in very long rambling sentences full of deep thoughts. This usually would turn me off completely but here it didn’t.
It also becomes a kind of unpacking about what constitutes a marriage. I especially liked the way Bishop showed the enmeshing of each other’s creative ideas until you can’t tell where one person's talent ends and the other begins.
I’m not sure I am doing this books justice in this review. I don’t think it will be for everyone and I’m not sure the ending totally worked for me but like I said earlier I couldn’t put it down. A very interesting read!
March 28, 2023
The Anniversary
⭐️⭐️
Firstly, I would like to thank Hachette for sending me a copy of this book in return for my honest review. (Receiving this book in no way influences my rating)
I wanted to like The Anniversary however there were a few points where this book fell short. Not only were the characters unlikable but I didn’t find myself wanting to find out more or caring what happened to them.
The writing left a lot to be desired with words that were confusing, no quotation marks, a lack of paragraphs and a lot of unnecessary words that made the storyline drag even more and reading it less than enjoyable.
In the end,I wanted to like this more however The Anniversary and I didn’t gel and I don’t think I am the right influence for it.
⭐️⭐️
Firstly, I would like to thank Hachette for sending me a copy of this book in return for my honest review. (Receiving this book in no way influences my rating)
I wanted to like The Anniversary however there were a few points where this book fell short. Not only were the characters unlikable but I didn’t find myself wanting to find out more or caring what happened to them.
The writing left a lot to be desired with words that were confusing, no quotation marks, a lack of paragraphs and a lot of unnecessary words that made the storyline drag even more and reading it less than enjoyable.
In the end,I wanted to like this more however The Anniversary and I didn’t gel and I don’t think I am the right influence for it.
May 30, 2023
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.
I found this book difficult to read. There were no speech marks, it jumped around in time, I was frequently unsure if the protagonist was narrating what was actually happening, what she was imagining, or what had happened in the past. She was unemotional (OK, for some of the time frames she was in shock) and unsympathetic, and no one's actions made emotional sense to me.
Not for me.
I found this book difficult to read. There were no speech marks, it jumped around in time, I was frequently unsure if the protagonist was narrating what was actually happening, what she was imagining, or what had happened in the past. She was unemotional (OK, for some of the time frames she was in shock) and unsympathetic, and no one's actions made emotional sense to me.
Not for me.
December 15, 2022
Dynamic, enthralling and addictive story. A brilliantly written novel that is impossible to put down. Stephanie Bishop has put together an award-winning story of a successful woman's journey into confusion and pain as she tries to find her true self. Totally sensational novel worthy of five stars.
March 9, 2024
Psychological thriller is one of my least favourite genres, and the Anniversary has a foot too firmly in that camp for me to love it. The execution here is almost flawless, however, with a fine balance between tension around what is going on, and tension around how the reader might feel about what is going on. This is all sharply laced with social commentary around gender, fame and careers.
Bishop pulls no punches in highlighting the very different expectations that women face to be considered brilliant, and also the very different expectations they face around providing familial support. By weaving these themes tightly into the plot, the book stays both focused and multi-faceted. She demands respect and empathy for her protagonist, while refusing to turn her into a paragon of relatability, and this is probably the thing I liked most about it.
(I also found it highly ironic that, given the book has a section about how little control authors have over covers, that this cover felt very much like it was designed and approved by people who did not, in fact, read the book. A storm is not only the literal context, but also very much the metaphorical one).
Bishop pulls no punches in highlighting the very different expectations that women face to be considered brilliant, and also the very different expectations they face around providing familial support. By weaving these themes tightly into the plot, the book stays both focused and multi-faceted. She demands respect and empathy for her protagonist, while refusing to turn her into a paragon of relatability, and this is probably the thing I liked most about it.
(I also found it highly ironic that, given the book has a section about how little control authors have over covers, that this cover felt very much like it was designed and approved by people who did not, in fact, read the book. A storm is not only the literal context, but also very much the metaphorical one).
October 10, 2023
3.5 stars. To celebrate their anniversary, writer JB Blackwood and her husband, esteemed film director Patrick, embark on a cruise. When a storm hits a tragedy occurs and JB is left alone, to try and understand what her marriage - and her adult life - has all been about.
Beautifully written this is very much a slow burner of a tale. It meanders between the present and the past, often swiftly and without warning. I did enjoy it but I found it a little too verbose for my liking. Intense chapters with constant thoughts and reflections.
I loved hearing about JB & Patrick’s relationship. I also found JB’s past fascinating. What I wasn’t so keen on was the present; she seemed constantly ethereal and dream like. Always on the edge of collapse, but still making crazy decisions to go ahead with her work schedule.
I would definitely try this author again. Despite these few criticisms this was a good book with a decent plot.
Beautifully written this is very much a slow burner of a tale. It meanders between the present and the past, often swiftly and without warning. I did enjoy it but I found it a little too verbose for my liking. Intense chapters with constant thoughts and reflections.
I loved hearing about JB & Patrick’s relationship. I also found JB’s past fascinating. What I wasn’t so keen on was the present; she seemed constantly ethereal and dream like. Always on the edge of collapse, but still making crazy decisions to go ahead with her work schedule.
I would definitely try this author again. Despite these few criticisms this was a good book with a decent plot.
April 11, 2024
Pe cât de bine a debutat Aniversarea, pe atât de lentă a fost acțiunea din cuprins. De altfel, m-am lovit și de previzibilitatea acțiunii. Dacă ați știi în câte romane nu m-am lovit de aceleași evenimente.
Deosebit de iritant a fost și lipsa semnelor de dialog. Aproape că preferam să fie redat dialogul ca în engleză prin ghilimele decât să lipsească liniile de dialog.
M-a amețit și trecerea bruscă de la trecut la prezent. Protagonista aproape că mi-a scos peri albi. A fost nesuferit de slabă, căuta întotdeauna validarea soțului ei precum un copil de la un părinte. Să nu mai spun în ce hal s-a lăsat manipulată și folosită de soțul ei.
Aniversarea s-a caracterizat totodată prin descrieri kilometrice, fără relevanță pentru firul narativ.
Pentru o carte de weekend, light, v-o recomand, pentru un thriller alert și care să vă țină în priză, în niciun caz.
Deosebit de iritant a fost și lipsa semnelor de dialog. Aproape că preferam să fie redat dialogul ca în engleză prin ghilimele decât să lipsească liniile de dialog.
M-a amețit și trecerea bruscă de la trecut la prezent. Protagonista aproape că mi-a scos peri albi. A fost nesuferit de slabă, căuta întotdeauna validarea soțului ei precum un copil de la un părinte. Să nu mai spun în ce hal s-a lăsat manipulată și folosită de soțul ei.
Aniversarea s-a caracterizat totodată prin descrieri kilometrice, fără relevanță pentru firul narativ.
Pentru o carte de weekend, light, v-o recomand, pentru un thriller alert și care să vă țină în priză, în niciun caz.
Read
August 11, 2023The writing is beautiful. I did find it a little slow and in places repetitive. I enjoyed the 2nd half more.
“Maybe none of us can help but become the things we are most determined to avoid, so fixated on what we don’t want that we will this, indirectly. In the end, I have lived out my own counterfactuals, or become them, in opposition to my conscious and professed desires-Complicit in my own downfall, if I can think of it like that” p412
“Maybe none of us can help but become the things we are most determined to avoid, so fixated on what we don’t want that we will this, indirectly. In the end, I have lived out my own counterfactuals, or become them, in opposition to my conscious and professed desires-Complicit in my own downfall, if I can think of it like that” p412
October 8, 2025
2 ⭐️
THE ANNIVERSARY by Stephanie Bishop
Novelist J.B. goes on a cruise with her husband, and he plunges overboard to his death. I thought this was going to be a thriller, but it wasn’t.
This was a slow-burn psychological novel that toggles back and forth between soon after the event and their marriage. There is resentment and jealousy, as Patrick is also a writer. This gave me a lot of Meg Wolitzer’s THE WIFE vibes, but this is a less linear (more scattered) story. I didn’t enjoy being in the narrator’s perspective.
There were pieces of this that I did like, but it was relatively little of the novel. It could be that I had thriller expectations that weren’t met, and it felt like a poor knockoff of THE WIFE.
THE ANNIVERSARY by Stephanie Bishop
Novelist J.B. goes on a cruise with her husband, and he plunges overboard to his death. I thought this was going to be a thriller, but it wasn’t.
This was a slow-burn psychological novel that toggles back and forth between soon after the event and their marriage. There is resentment and jealousy, as Patrick is also a writer. This gave me a lot of Meg Wolitzer’s THE WIFE vibes, but this is a less linear (more scattered) story. I didn’t enjoy being in the narrator’s perspective.
There were pieces of this that I did like, but it was relatively little of the novel. It could be that I had thriller expectations that weren’t met, and it felt like a poor knockoff of THE WIFE.
July 9, 2024
I stort sett en lång lång monolog skriven i talspråk. Kul!
Uppskattade denna fastän att det inte var det bästa jag någonsin läst, därav 4 stjärnor istället för vad den kanske egentligen är värd, 3.
Uppskattade denna fastän att det inte var det bästa jag någonsin läst, därav 4 stjärnor istället för vad den kanske egentligen är värd, 3.
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