This book had me from the very first page. The narrator is James Farrell, who when we begin the book, has just admitted to shooting his wife of over forty years in the head. He doesn't feel a stitch of remorse over it, in fact, he feels as though he has served a just punishment. Wow, ok. Way to draw a reader in. The rest of the novel is his retelling of his life and that of his true love, Ella, his dear friend, Eric, and the intertwining of all their lives with his now deceased wife, Sarah. James reflects back to when he first met Ella as a young man in his early twenties. He was an aspiring violinist just out of Oxford but still very naive in the ways of the world. He is from a family of some stature - enough to be connected to the more well-to-do, though not yet a part of them. He is young and itching for adventure, thinking that his life is too boxed in and predictable yet unable to really break free from the mold when he meets a kindred spirit in Ella. Through chance circumstances and mutual friends, they continue to bump into one another and infatuation grows into what can only be, as a young man who hasn't felt such passion before, true and abiding love. It is the progression of their story that leads James to leave his innocence behind and make choices that force him out of naive childhood and into adulthood, and that will, after fifty years, still haunt him.I really enjoyed this novel, the pacing of it was great and it had such an air of suspense that really kept me interested. The writing was good and the characters both likable and flawed. Plus, it was set in such great areas: London, Prague, France, Seton Castle. Such wonderfully romantic settings for the unveiling of some rather dark secrets. It felt rather Victorian, in a good way. I would certainly recommend it even on writing alone, because Mason spins such a good story and keeps you guessing even after he's told you the ending. You grow your assumptions as the pieces come together, but you keep reading because you're so invested. It is very well done. I am going to give away some spoiler here very soon, so if you'd like to read the book, and I definitely recommend that you do, DO NOT continue reading!While there are many relationships in this novel, the most complex, and my favorite, is the one between James and his friend, Eric. Now, James tells you early on that Eric is dead, but as much as I knew it was coming, I was still heartbroken when it happened. Eric and James meet when they play a concert together, Eric as James' accompaniment on the piano. They grow to be fast friends and James goes along with Eric to Prague to help close out his deceased aunt's apartment. While they spend three months together in Prague, James is waiting for Ella to end things in London with her fiancé (quick version here: she is marrying out of familial obligation and her intense and secret courtship with James has led her to want to break things off with the fiancé and be with James instead). James and Eric are carefree and fun in Prague and before long you realize that there is more between them that James is letting on. At least there is for Eric, but James doesn't see it. However, when Ella joins them, she sees it. The problem is that Ella, due to secrets of her own that you will discover, is distrusting and wants James to prove that he doesn't feel anything for Eric in return. Her request for proof though turns out to be something that is rather cruel to Eric, and is something that James cannot come back from. It leads them all down a dark path that ends with Eric killing himself and James feeling so guilty and heartbroken for his part in his friend's suicide, that he cuts himself off from Ella as a source of punishment. The scenes with Eric and James are so poignant and painful that it was at times difficult to read since I could kind of guess what was coming even though I was dreading it at the same time. After Eric's death, unfortunately, I felt like the book fell into a bit of a lull. James spiraled deeper and deeper into his cocoon of guilt and self-inflicted punishment and the older James reflects much on his pain during this time. It seemed to lack the urgency and momentum that the first half of the book had. Even when we get to the events that lead to James eventually discovering his wife's secret and killing her, I wasn't as invested as I was with Eric's story. It was still interesting, and still somewhat suspenseful, but not nearly as much as in the beginning of the novel. It was almost as though I had expended so much emotion on Eric's death that I didn't have as much left for Ella's downfall. It was a satisfying end seeing James finally come to an understanding of his mistakes, but I think that in the end he is still acting like the coward. He has punished Sarah for her sins regarding Ella, but has done nothing about his part in Eric's death, or his denial of Ella when Sarah framed her. Although he has finally admitted to the reader what he had done, he hasn't really taken accountability. It was an interesting statement to end on and definitely resonated with me for a bit. It was a bittersweet ending I think. Satisfying in that I finally knew the secrets that were laying hidden for so long, but sad because Eric still doesn't have justice or truth given to his story.
La trama di "Anime alla deriva" può apparire più o meno interessante rispetto ad altri melodrammi simili, ma non è questo il suo punto di debolezza. Il problema è invece che, per motivi anche imperscrutabili, il romanzo non riesce minimamente ad avvincere il lettore e questo per un melodramma è un guaio serio! I monologhi, i tormenti e le crisi interiori dei personaggi sembrano scritti da una mano furba ma sempre poco ispirata o poco partecipe, con fastidiose ripetizioni e colpi di scena prevedibili e previsti, con uno stile che suona spesso falso e personaggi troppo inattendibili, a tratti tirato via, a tratti fin troppo introspettivo; sembra insomma il romanzo di un dilettante ed è incomprensibile il successo (a dire il vero, solo di pubblico, perchè la critica l'ha abbastanza ignorato...) che ha ottenuto.In conclusione riesce abbastanza difficile immedesimarsi nel protagonista e questo distacco che prende il lettore pregiudica quello che si può ritenere un tasto fondamentale per trarre piacere dalla lettura di un melodramma: se non c'è coinvolgimento le vicende emotive divengono stucchevoli, le passioni risibili, gli struggimenti del cuore noiosi a meno che lo scrittore sia un asso in grado di coinvolgerti con la sola capacità di scrivere ma questo non è proprio il caso di questo furbo ragazzotto mezzo sudafricano mezzo inglese...Breve appunto personale: ho riflettuto ma non sono riuscito a mettere a fuoco con sicurezza le motivazioni per cui "A Voce Alta", un altro melodramma che si dipana nell'arco di decenni, scritto anch'esso in prima persona, imbevuto di passione e morte, (peraltro da uno scrittore che non ha certo lo stile di Proust...) sappia profondamente colpire e generare commozione, e questo lasci indifferente e alla fine infastidito. Ecco, "commozione" è forse la parola chiave: Anime alla Deriva è un libro che forse vorrebbe, ma non riesce per nulla a commuovere.
Do You like book The Drowning People (2000)?
It might have been seriously better if it hadn't been so very predictable. The author keeps repeating the same things about how remembering gets him digressing on things that are not really important( could have said it just once, twice tops). The storyline is quite good and ghostly enough for it to be a "bad romance". The feelings of the characters are well depicted and I really liked that. In the end though I was waiting for some unexpected twist in the plot that never came. Too bad!Se non fosse stato cos�� prevedibile, sarebbe stato molto ma molto meglio! L'autore non fa che ripetere le stesse cose sul fatto che ricordare lo porta a digressioni inutili( avrebbe potuto dirlo una volta, massimo due). La storia �� bella e abbastanza spettrale da poter essere un "bad romance". I sentimenti e le sensazioni dei personaggi sono ben delineati, cosa che ho molto apprezzato. D'altra parte alla fine stavo aspettando un qualche sconvolgimento inaspettato nella trama che non �� arrivato. Peccato!
—Giuseppe D
Alright so just finished this lengthy verbose tale of a silly twenty something year old man, his life, his love and his foolishness and honestly dont know what to say about it..I have dubbed this a "smart girl" read as it involved frequent trips to my trusty thesaurus and grammar refresher, took way too many adjectives and supercilious prose to say what it really means and meandered aimlessly in all sorts of silly subplots, location and artistic descriptions, characterizations and run on sentences that manage to make the novel come off as pretentious and tedious while intending to be witty and intellectual..Few writers make good novels out of this (Zadie Smith, Iris Murdoch, Colleen McCullough and Joanne Harris are some that immediately come to mind: pioneers of "smart girl" Lit)..... and many writers come off as trying to sound smarter than they really are that is why when I read the author was only eighteen when he wrote this I was floored... What a brilliant young man but I still think he tried way to hard to make this melodrama suspensful with all the foreshadowing buildup to kinda a let down..Lets start with the plot you have this confused and naive young man finding his way in the world through his music and his society friends when he meets this crazy chain-smoking blond girl that spouts a few vague and weird words about life and uncertainty and he feels she is deeper than the ocean..Follow this boy as his next encounter is at her engagement party, okay sure any normal person would leave her alone or for the most part stop chasing her but he is a silly lad and keeps falling into her trap of cryptic metaphors and spacy logic obviously designed to make him chase her if for nothing more than a straight answer even though she is obviously taken..but oh no this boy follows relentlessly and is led to a relationship with a slightly insane woman, her family, her ancestors, her jealousy and her cruelty..I abhorred this character of Ella Harcourt, she tried to be so self righteous and smart and conniving but she was so stupid and weak and manipulative, such a deliciously bad character ..Of course I cant hate the player if she got a dumb young man to do all she wanted but all the ancestral backstory and the best friend/love test were way too much, more focus should have been on the last twenty pages of the book and the character of Sarah, that may have been interesting...
—Monique
I don't know how I missed this on my book shelf, but if you SAW my book shelves, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall beauties, you'd understand.This book is the offering of a young author (very young -- he started this book when he was seventeen)and it's written about love found and lost, betrayal, murder, intrigue, secrets, and obsession. The very first page of the book opens with an elderly man saying that he has just killed his wife, and that she deserved it, and then he goes on to tell his story to explain why. The story is filled with a feeling of dread and despair and foreboding, and although I knew how it would end, it was still rather well done -- especially considering how young the author was.It's not a book for everyone -- but if you liked "Atonement", you should give this one a try.Lori AndersonLori Anderson:The Store Pretty Things:The Blog Facebook
—Lori Anderson
