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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I read this beautiful book and wept.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Best of Friends (Hardcover)
Gina and Laurence have been best friends since they were teenagers. Gina marries Fergus, and Laurence marries Hilary, and the two couples and their families are the best of friends. But the emotional fallout that occurs when Fergus leaves Gina is the subject of this book. That event is like a stone dropping into a lake, with the ripples of effect on the other three adults and their children beautifully and sensitively told by this English author in a most understated way. This book is about love in all its guises and about the loss of love. Most touching of all is the description of the love relationship between Vi, Gina's eighty year old mother and a neighbor, Dan. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. Read it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Life's complexities...,
This review is from: Best of Friends (Hardcover)
This was my first Joanna Trollope book and I enjoyed it--read it in two sittings. Trollope writes beautifully, and this will not be the last book of hers I read. However, I would have liked a bit more character development. The most understandable character is Gina's daughter Sophy, who seems to be a bit like her grandmother Vi. (Sometimes when parents are not emotionally available, a child is lucky enough to live near a loving grandmother.) To obtain full development for the major characters, Trollop would have had to double the size of her book, and then it might have been more like "The Shell Seekers" (Not storywise--I use this book as an example where I as the reader had fuller understanding of the motivations of the main characters.) The story centers on two old friends, Gina and Laurence who live in the town where they grew up, though both have acquired spouses elsewhere. One day, Gina's spouse Fergus leaves her, and moves from the village to London. This action devestates Gina and Sophy her daughter. Gina goes to stay with her friend Laurence and his wife Hillary at their small hotel, while Sophy moves in with her grandmother Vi. After three weeks at the hotel, Hillary suggests that Laurance tell Gina to leave, so Gina finally moves home. But Laurance continues to see her as he always has--as a friend. One day, their relationship slips over the line. The rest of the book is about the effect of that action on the lives of the other characters-Vi, Sophy, Hillary, and the three boys of Hillary and Laurance. The father Fergus is told by his daughter Sophy that his action has lead to a ripple effect that he could not have forseen when he decided to move away. I don't think Gina is a villan(ess). Trollope is depicting real people, and real people for the most part are complex. Most individuals want to be loved, but sometimes they do not behave in loveable ways. Love is unconditional, however, we don't love someone because they behave as we wish, we just love them. And, it's difficult to understand what goes on between two people, even when we are the observer with an author to give us clues. Over the years, I've observed a number of relationships evolve between two people who are married to other people. In some cases, the man or woman or both were looking for excitment outside marriage. On the other hand, sometimes decent people stray. This doesn't mean it's morally okay, just that it happens, even when the individual was not expecting or intending it to happen. I think this is the case for Laurance. He says he loves both Hillary and Gina. Of course, the repercussions of his behaviour are hard to bear, particularly for the children, though they are awful for Hillary. It's such a shock to discover the person you loved, and yes took for granted, may be very human and vulnerable. I can't say very much about how things turn out in this book, except, from my perspective it is for the best, although frequently, that is not how I personally have seen it turn out. And, I am not sure that the woman who ends up with Laurance in the end is the happiest.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Joanna Trollope Fails to write an intriguing novel,
By
This review is from: The Best of Friends (Paperback)
This author was highly recommended to me by a friend with whom I share many similar reading tastes. Imagine my disappointment when I had to force myself to finish this book. The characters were not likeable and I could not care about them. Only Hillary evoked any sympathy from me. Gina and Sophy and Lawrence and Fergus all left me cold. I cannot imagine a group of more unlovable characters all assembled in one novel. How could anyone feel for the spoiled, self-centered, uncaring Gina? And how did she become this way? She certainly did not grow up pampered and her mother Vi seems to be a caring person. Lawrence came across as dim-witted and totally controlled by his feeling-of-the-day. Because I could not care about these characters, I could not care about the repercussions of their adulterous shenanigans and will not be inspired to read anything else by this author.
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