Two Loves

by Siân James

Rosamund Gilchrist is restless. She has lived her life so far in supporting widowed third wife of the much older Anthony, a famous poet; mother of the enchanting Joss; daugther of eccentric divorced parents, and mistress of her neighbor, Thomas. But now that her comfortable, long-term affair has come to an end, she has to face facts--if she is ever to become more than a half-hearted painter, ever to have a man of her own or another child, she has to venture out of her sanctuary at home and tackle life head on.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 10, 1997

About the author

Siân James was a Welsh novelist who wrote in English.

James attended the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She was a Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Glamorgan. She was a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. She twice won the Yorkshire Post Prize, and her third novel, A Small Country, has come to be regarded as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature. In 2006, A Small Country was made into a Welsh-language TV series (Calon Gaeth), which won the 2007 Bafta Cymru award for Best Drama/Drama Serial for Television.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having chanced upon her obituary in The Guardian, I thought I’d read the Welsh writer, Sian James.
Firstly, I read her short stories and found them deftly written and quietly moving. So I embarked upon, Two Loves, one of her later novels with a very positive feeling.
Sian James is an accomplished writer but something about this book called to mind an expression from Virago, the publishing house. Their benchmark for accepting new authors was that they had to pass a threshold known as “ the Whipple line”. Dorothy Whipple, a very popular author in her time wrote a lot about women but somehow missed the feminist mark. ) And I felt this was true of Sian James in Two Loves. In the first half I gave the author the benefit of the doubt but found the latter parts over egged with formulaic plot lines, all pretty unconvincing. Rosamund, the main character was pretty infuriating in making such epic bad choices. But what struck me the most is that as a character she was two dimensional and we really didn’t find out what made her tick.
Sian James was pretty prolific and I really thought I’d discovered an exciting new author to read but (if anything) I’ll be sticking to her short stories from now on.