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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

An argument was never very far away from her sister. Even when they were kids, Clare could start a row in an empty room. It was funny how they’d all just grown up into older versions of how were they were as children.

 

It was barely recognisable as the beautiful cherub in the Bounty Baby pictures that Frank had convinced her to pose for in the early days of motherhood, back before she decided that her child was a test sent to her by the Devil himself. Indignation radiated from the baby’s every pore… The baby locked its gaze on to Dorothy’s like a heat-seeking missile, paused briefly to fill its lungs with a fresh supply of oxygen and began to scream again. How could something so small cause so much wanton destruction, wondered Dorothy.

 

Thank the Lord that her own parents hadn’t been around to see how Clare was turning out. She could virtually feel the breeze that was coming off her father spinning in his grave.

 

She’ll die an old maid, eating cat food and surrounded by back copies of the Reader’s Digest.

 

She was sixty-five for God’s sake. She should lower her expectations a little. Her own mother had considered herself old at this age but she still felt like a young woman. Well, she did in her heart. It was a slightly different story in her knees.

 

Frank had loved words. They had dripped from his lips like honey from a spoon. Often he spoke as if he were on a stage, his words a performance rather than merely a means of communicating his thoughts.

 

My Review:

 

This compelling book was superbly written, cunningly clever, shrewdly paced and packed with sharp wit, remarkable insights, and observant details.   Each complex character inhabited a quirky personality, which was skillfully and enticingly fleshed out.   I adored it and didn’t want to put it down. I read it slowly and with great delight as I coveted, marveled, and savored every well-chosen word.   Imogen Clark is a master scribe; I want to amass and hoard all her clever words.

Every family has secrets and most people are intrinsically drawn and curious to unearth them as other peoples’ hidden foibles are so much more interesting and alluring than our own shame, but unfortunately, as you get older, you find there are some secrets you wish you didn’t know yet cannot erase or hit delete once you’ve played Pandora. And every family has at least one walking disaster wastrel – mine has several.   But then my family tree is horribly diseased and should be chopped down and burned for good measure. While this captivatingly portrayed family had several drama llamas, Clare was an imposing piece of work. Even in childhood, she had rebelliously pushed every boundary with an abrasive personality, and as an adult, she was simply vile, irresponsible, unpredictably volatile, and increasingly self-destructive. I fervently loathed her with fascination!

In addition to the thrill and privilege of perusing one of my favorite reads for 2018, Ms. Clark also provided me with two new treasures for my Brit Word List with an idiom of “bugger that for a game of soldiers” – for screw this; and bone idle – which Mr. Google informed me was the ultimate of sloth and laziness as it went all the way to the bone. How glorious!

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