Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey NiffeneggerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger is an interesting tale about the complexities of love, grief and family relationships. Strangely, it is also a ghost story.
When Aunt Elspeth dies in London, she leaves her apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina from Chicago, with two conditions - that they live in the apartment for at least a year, and that they never let their parents Edie (Elspeth’s twin sister) and Jack inside.
Little do the twins know, their aunt Elspeth is still inhabiting the apartment also.
Complex and multi-layered, Her Fearful Symmetry isn’t your average ghost story, but more a treatise on the difficulties between siblings, lovers and parents. It follows a number of characters, all on their own distinct yet inter-twined paths and is a slow and subtle read. Fantastically, there is a lot of time spent on character development, but unfortunately very little time spent on plot development. Sigh.
Her Fearful Symmetry reminds me a little of Paul Auster’s The Brooklyn Follies in that it tells a story about everyday people in a way that is still interesting and compelling. Where it differs from the Follies however, is in its dark and macabre turn of events, as the secrets of each of the characters are slowly revealed and the choices they have made come to fruition.
I am left feeling a little confused after reading this one - I’m both saddened and horrified, and am still not sure whether I like the book or not. I guess some would say this is the mark of a truly good book - that it has left me with questions requiring further contemplation, but I guess you’ll only know for sure if you read it for yourself.
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2 comments:
nice review Saire, I'll have to give it a go.
Thanks Alethea :) If you can get through the first half (which is quite slow) it's worth it.
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