About this title: Consequences is a three-generation love story that opens on the eve of the Second World War with a chance meeting in St. James's Park, London. Desperately in love, wealthy Lorna and "starving artist" Matt marry, despite her parents' disapproval. The young couple leave London for a cottage in a rural Somerset village, where Matt, Lorna, and baby Molly are the picture of domestic bliss. But all that happiness is shattered with the arrival of World War II. Over two decades later, Molly happens upon a forgotten newspaper -- a seemingly small moment that leads to her first job and, eventually, a ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780143113430ISBN:0143113437
Description: New. New books small to none shelf wear A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condiion. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780143113430ISBN:0143113437
Description: Good. 98-V: Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780143113430ISBN:0143113437
Description: Very Good. Very Good Condition for being gently read. Better than average used book ** Shop the most eco-conscious seller and keep the earth clean! ** read more
"This read a bit like a Women's Own rip-off of a Penelope Lively story. In Moon Tiger she really made us care about the characters, their world and the resonance of their lives. Here it just all seemed a bit trivial and engineered. Plus there was that awful hearty cosiness that hits the "modern day" bit of too many family sagas. Clearly it's a genre up for reinvention. Too bad Lively hasn't done it here."
"The stories of three generations of women told in sparse but elegant prose, Lively covers 70 years of social history in England, begining just before WWII, in this rather short novel, with characters entering and leaving the stage often. Of the three female protagonists, the grandmother Lorna and mother Molly emerge, play their roles in centre stage, and exit rather suddenly and it is left to daughter Ruth to tie the loose ends and bring the novel to its circular close.
The character's lives are probably echoed in many women who lived during this period, but it is in the telling that this story comes alive. Lorna loves beneath her social class, falls for the engraver Matt, spends a few idylic years with him in a farmhouse which Matt adorns with frescos celebrating their love life, and loses him to the battle for Crete. Molly has an affair with a benevolent boss and art collector, gives birth to Ruth, but never marries her lover, because she does not love him. Ruth marries and has two children but in an age when divorce has become easier, leaves her husband and her loveless marriage to live an independant life. All three women find love eventually with other men, but not without long periods of aloneness and a dawning of self-awareness in-between. There are parallels between the women too - all of them are attracted to men of the arts, all find work in and around the arts and all are surrounded from start to end by step-grandad Lukas and his aging printing press that becomes the fulcrum of their lives.
The author's style is unconventional, as tenses are juxtaposed, second and third person narratives are mixied, dialogue is intellectual and loaded with social commentary, and passive voice is used frequently - all "bad habits" that writing schools tell us to avoid - but here it seems to work - which reminds me of the newer adage, "If it works - use it!""
"An inter-generational novel about a family in Great Britain, from the Depression until the recent past. Decent writing, but I feel that the author tried to cover too much ground (60+ years) in too few pages (258). Consequently, the characters were insufficiently developed, and I had the feeling that the author was racing through time - a sort of "been there, done that" sense."
"Consequences is a thoughtful, elegantly written book that I keep thinking of as graceful. While the plot is filled with drama, spans three generations, and includes war, death, sex, and every deep and dramatic emotion possible, it nonetheless floats along without ever bogging down in sentimentality or morbidity. Lively's prose is clear and concise, and after slogging through some of too-long books recently, it was also something of a breath of fresh air.
The book tells the story of a chance meeting on a park bench which leads to a life-changing romance and a very unique family; Lively explores themes of family and identity while following the lives of three members of this family. I really liked the characters and their relationships to one another, and I was extremely impressed at the way Lively managed to sketch out an entire character in just snippets of daily life and conversations (I don't think there was a single conversation in this book that was written in its entirety; mostly the narration dipped in and out, giving us the good bits).
I'm definitely going to check out more of Lively's work after this."
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