book fifty-one: Her Fearful Symmetry

6 April 2014 at Tim & Wendy's place.   Jo brought the shortlist for the next book.

Her Fearful Symmetry is the second novel by Audrey Niffenegger, following her crowd-pleasing debut The Time Traveller's Wife.  Unfortunately it didn't go down so well with our crew.  

Most thought it was all a bit too far fetched (but then what do you expect with a story about ghosts? - Ed).  Apparently the twin story isn't original.  Both male characters, Robert and Jack, were thought very weak.  Didn't have enough information about Jack to know why he put up with all of this.  The group questioned why the girls' parents allowed the twins  to keep dressing the same way and being so close. It was felt that the parents should have put their foot down earlier; instead they set up the twins for the same break down in twin relationship with Edie and Elspeth.  

And last but not least... inconsistent ghost wold rules irritated our readers - the kitten ghost was able to get out of the flat but Elspeth couldn't.  Outrageous.

Scores:

Mari 8 - just below half. It was too coy. High expectations and disappointed. Julia was happy to be a bum. Very unlikeable. Valentina at least had the excuse of being weak and needing sometime to sort out her issues.  The omniscient narrator point of view doesn't work. Too many people telling the story, but deliberately not sharing information. It would have been better to leave out Elspeth's narration and leave it as being subtle, for us to try to work out who was in which body. Treating the audience like they are stupid.
Leigha 11 Enjoyed the first two thirds and then felt it lost its way. Wonder what sort of headache the editor had. Prior to that I was drawn in. The love triangle aspect where one dead was intriguing.
Jo 6  Gagging cliches. There could have been a book just about Martin and Marieke.  I can say that it was easy to read fast.
James Everyone has talked me down to 8. I was going to give a 9.
Wendy 12  Worried about Tim getting to the tipping point. First two thirds was really good. Enjoyed a lot of the insights about how the different relationships work. Just didn't like the ending. Wanted a happier ending. Too hard to believe that Valentina would decide to end it rather than just have a conversation. Scoring it 12 because I enjoyed it more than anyone else.
Tim hadn't finished a the time of the book club, so sat out of the discussion.  In the rain.  by himself.  Not that he's bitter.  Finished the book afterwards and can see what everyone means about the story getting silly in the last bit.  Still, enjoyed it overall.  11