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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh, six or seven stars, please!,
By
This review is from: The Greengage Summer (Paperback)
This is one of those books I've bought again and again. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story set in the French countryside. I first read it back when the earth was cooling, and I have no idea what became of that original copy. I bought it again as an adult, loaned it to a friend and never saw it again. I recently bought it yet a third time, a used copy on Amazon, and this one I'm not loaning out.Greengage Summer is a delicious melange of mystery, romance, travel writing, and character study. I'm surprised it's no longer in print, because I truly think it's a classic. It started me reading everything Rumer Godden's written. I like her writing tremendously, but Greengage Summer is her best. When Mum is confined to bed in a small French village, her children are left on their own in the pensione. It's mainly the story of the oldest daughter's blossoming toward maturity, but it's more, much more, than what appears on the surface. Read it, and loan it to a friend - but be sure you get it back!
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thrilling tale of love and crime in France,
By
This review is from: The Greengage Summer (Plus) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Grey children are taken to France by their mother to visit the battlefields of WW1 in the hope that it will make them less selfish. However, she is taken ill as soon as they arrive at their destination, the hotel Les Oeillets, and the children find themselves bewildered and frightened in a strange land with a barely conscious mother. They are befriended by Eliot, a charming and enigmatic Englishman staying at Les Oeillets, who sorts everything out. With their mother in hospital, the children are free to explore this strange and exotic new world, so different from the dull suburban English town they have come from. They get to know all the people at the hotel, Mamzelle Zizzi, the beautiful but slightly haggard proprietor, who is clearly besotted with Eliot, Madame Corbet, grim and unsmiling, who equally clearly detests him, and all the rest of the staff. They make friends with Paul, an orphan who is an overworked drudge in the kitchen, but dreams of some day owning his own lorry. The story is narrated by Cecil, thirteen years old, who observes everything, especially the growing attraction between Joss, her exquisitely lovely elder sister, and Eliot. As Eliot spends more and more time with the children, Mamzelle Zizzi's jealousy grown, until it finally explodes one night in a scene that terrifies and bewilders the Grey family. The children try to retreat from the scary grownupworld to their safe childhood idyll, but it is too late, the happy atmosphere is poisoned. As Eliot's behaviour grows more mysterious,and Mamzelle Zizzi continues to simmer with jealousy the story heads inevitably towards disaster. All the characters in this book are fascinating, from secretive, sexy Eliot to the drudge Paul, and you feel totally involved in their lives. The atmosphere of a French summer is so vividly described, you can taste the greengages the children stuff themselves with, and smell the eccentric French plumbing. A gripping and poignant story of lost innocence, this book is based on actual events in Rumer Godden's youth, and is quite unforgettable.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book for all ages,
By Bijoyini Chatterjee (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Greengage Summer (Paperback)
I first read it when I was 12 and then again when I was 22. It is a wonderfully written and deepy perceptive book about growing up (amongst a host of other things). Please read this book if you have not and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Other books by Rumer Godden are also brilliant - eg. In this house of Brede, Black Narcissus, Two under the Indian Sun, The River. She is also one of the very few writers who (IMHO) really loves India and writes like she is an insider and not an outsider. Enjoy.
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