Laura ’s Reviews > Brother of the More Famous Jack > Status Update

Everything is about appearances - she just doesn't get under the surface of things. It's like being held at arm's distance - no one ever FEELS anything in this book - it's all covered over with "witty" talk and graphic descriptions. It bothers me this endless lack of emotion. She describes crying; describes breaking down - in front of Jacob - I felt the relief for a moment when Jonathan and her wait at the undergrou

Pregnant and finally left the philandering, macho Michele - how could any woman have stuck him - I suppose it's the "jolly good sex" - and that's quite hard to convey in a book!

I'm not gelling with this character - and I can only guess it's the constant superimposition of the older voice - the experinced observations on the acutal innocent Katharine. She's 30 now - from my persepctive of 59 that's still young!

Move dto the Rome section of the novel - and oh Boy does it remind me of Lisa St. Aubin de Teran's masterful - The Slow Train to Milan - 1983. Wow just the one year difference - I guess it was de rigueur for young British ladies to spend their Informative years in Italy!

Also analysed my apathy for Coming of Age novels - the innocence sucks - it's exactly the squashy, mollusc like squidge - that makes me heave.

Not loving it - "strained" - too much seeking of the comic effect. The much better book - in my opinion is Margaret Drabble's - Jerusalem the Golden, which offer a very similar plot - written in 1967.

Is Trapido's - 1982 a rewrite or does she offer a development? It's interesting because my copy is a publisher's New Issue - 40 years down the line re-issue, published 2022. I'm begining to loathe re-issues.