Bitter Orange
Bitter Orange reminds me of a lot of other books. One reviewer compared it to Rebecca, and the setting in a manor house called Lyntons is a reference to Wuthering Heights. I am also currently suffering through Sophie's Choice (am I the only person who finds the narrator to be insufferable, the writing overwrought, and the general tenor to be racist and sexist?), and I had some initial difficulty in keeping the two books separate.
It took me a little while to get into the book for the reasons above, especially because Frances, the narrator is, like the narrator in Rebecca, very wishy washy and personality-less, which I find terribly annoying. However, once I got a little further in, the mystery, hint of a ghost story, and sheer dramatical tension had me hooked. Frances is an unreliable narrator, and the couple that she hooks up with, Cara and Peter, are charming and cosmopolitan, and clearly hiding something.
Frances is visiting English country manor Lyntons after the death of her mother, on assignment by the house's American owner to survey the architectural detail of the gardens. Peter arrives, with girlfriend Cara in tow, to make a similar review of the interior. The trio become friends, and Frances is predictably drawn into Peter and Cara's volatile relationship, which she observes through a Judas hole in her bathroom floor.
This is the third book I've read this year that begins by telling us the ending. Bitter Orange begins with Frances telling us that Cara and Peter are dead, with her in prison for their murders. Claire Fuller does a great job building the sense of dread and tension that propel the narrative, but I have to question if this whole "tell the reader the ending at the beginning" is some fashionable new trend, or was this always common and I just missed it? The other two books I read this year with this narrative methodology are The Perfect Nanny and Black Leopard, Red Wolf, both of which begin by telling us the children in the respective stories are already dead. It's something I am definitely enjoying exploring, but I wonder if it's at the point of being overdone.
It took me a little while to get into the book for the reasons above, especially because Frances, the narrator is, like the narrator in Rebecca, very wishy washy and personality-less, which I find terribly annoying. However, once I got a little further in, the mystery, hint of a ghost story, and sheer dramatical tension had me hooked. Frances is an unreliable narrator, and the couple that she hooks up with, Cara and Peter, are charming and cosmopolitan, and clearly hiding something.
Frances is visiting English country manor Lyntons after the death of her mother, on assignment by the house's American owner to survey the architectural detail of the gardens. Peter arrives, with girlfriend Cara in tow, to make a similar review of the interior. The trio become friends, and Frances is predictably drawn into Peter and Cara's volatile relationship, which she observes through a Judas hole in her bathroom floor.
This is the third book I've read this year that begins by telling us the ending. Bitter Orange begins with Frances telling us that Cara and Peter are dead, with her in prison for their murders. Claire Fuller does a great job building the sense of dread and tension that propel the narrative, but I have to question if this whole "tell the reader the ending at the beginning" is some fashionable new trend, or was this always common and I just missed it? The other two books I read this year with this narrative methodology are The Perfect Nanny and Black Leopard, Red Wolf, both of which begin by telling us the children in the respective stories are already dead. It's something I am definitely enjoying exploring, but I wonder if it's at the point of being overdone.
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