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Umbrella Tree
as new unused
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2014
Beavers in a river in Wicklow, Ireland! I think not & this is just one of a number of annoying inaccuracies pointing to a lack of research on the part of the author and which serve to detract from my enjoyment of this book. That said it is not a bad, though not exactly a brilliant, read.
The narrator & central character is Helena and we meet her first as she arrives in Dublin from her home on a very rural farm in Kenya. She is attending Trinity College and is homesick for Kenya and for her beloved brother with whome she had an unusually close sibling bond. For me the retelling of Helena's childhood with her brother is by far the best & most enjoyable part of the book - it is beautifully written and very athmospheric.
I was less happy with the rest of Helena's story as she falls in love, marries and settles down to family life in rural Wicklow (this is where the beavers come in!). I'm familiar with the "six degrees of separation" theory but this book just takes it a little too far - the sheer amount of coincidence obliterates any creditility.
I knew nothing about this book before reading it and it was only as I got to the end that I realized it was written as a memoir - that explained why I was constantly exasperated with Helena's apparent extraordinary insight into the minds and motivations of the other characters which I found very annoying. I thought she did quite a good job of the female characters but the male characters (apart from the brother, Horace), are cardboard cut outs, one dimensional and bland.
All in all a nice easy read for a wet weekend but it wouldn't have me adding Mary Stanley to my list of favourite authors & I won't be rushing out to get her other books.
The narrator & central character is Helena and we meet her first as she arrives in Dublin from her home on a very rural farm in Kenya. She is attending Trinity College and is homesick for Kenya and for her beloved brother with whome she had an unusually close sibling bond. For me the retelling of Helena's childhood with her brother is by far the best & most enjoyable part of the book - it is beautifully written and very athmospheric.
I was less happy with the rest of Helena's story as she falls in love, marries and settles down to family life in rural Wicklow (this is where the beavers come in!). I'm familiar with the "six degrees of separation" theory but this book just takes it a little too far - the sheer amount of coincidence obliterates any creditility.
I knew nothing about this book before reading it and it was only as I got to the end that I realized it was written as a memoir - that explained why I was constantly exasperated with Helena's apparent extraordinary insight into the minds and motivations of the other characters which I found very annoying. I thought she did quite a good job of the female characters but the male characters (apart from the brother, Horace), are cardboard cut outs, one dimensional and bland.
All in all a nice easy read for a wet weekend but it wouldn't have me adding Mary Stanley to my list of favourite authors & I won't be rushing out to get her other books.
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July 29, 2011I was really looking foward to this book, as I had thoroughly enjoyed Mary Stanleys other novels. However, I was pretty disappointed with this one. I didn't find the characters endearing at all and towards the end became a bit far fetched and coinidental.
April 18, 2010
Bit disappointing as I thought this would be good. Interesting ideas but writing style let it down... too many ideas crammed in by the end.
October 8, 2010
Not amazing
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews