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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetic, unforgettable,
By Sam Yeo (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Breakfast With the Nikolides (Paperback)
"Breakfast with the Nikolides" is undoubtedly an unusual book, but in a very good way. Rumer Godden has a gift of prose, and of imagery. She may not, perhaps, be Thomas Hardy or David Mitchell, but she is undoubtedly a writer whose works remain with you a long time after they are read.
Our story opens with the arrival in the East Indian town of Amorra, of Louise Pool and her daughters Emily and Binnie. It is early WWII, and they are returning to Louise's estranged husband (the girls' father) Charles, from years living in France. Charles, the Government overseer of the town, is a mysterious man, whose coldness toward Louise seems at first justified. Godden allows us to see Charles and Louise first from Emily's point of view: her father being a gallant, tall dark hero, and her mother being a cold, bitter woman. As the story progresses we are given insighg into each of them that suggests otherwise. Around them, the town itself is seething with unrest and, in typical Godden fashion, the unrest explodes just as the characters' personal matters do, in a masterly poetic fashion. On first reading, elements of the book did confuse me, partly because of Godden's subtlety, I assume. However, I now know it like the back of my hand and appreciate each time more little links and themes that she places throughout. I highly recommend this book, and other Godden works along with it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mystical,
By
This review is from: Breakfast: 2 (Hardcover)
This is a small, strange book, filled with Indian mysticism that I feel is beyond my plebian mind.
Charles Pool is an Englishman who runs a government farming project in Bengal, teaching local agriculturists soil and crop management. He has lived there alone for many year when he is joined by his wife Louise and two small daughters who are fleeing the German occupation of Paris. There is an obvious hatred between them which is eventually explained, with his totally neurotic wife determined to keep a distance between him and their daughters. The elder girl, Emily is driven even further away from both her parents when she discovers that Louise had her pet dog needlessly put down. M/s Goddens prose is undeniably beautiful and she has the gift of painting pictures, not only of the scenery and surrounds, but also of sounds and emotions. Such an abundance of raw feelings were just too much for me to enjoy the book properly.
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