Customer Reviews

Mrs Hartley And The Growth Centre

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I struggled through this, though thankfully it was a quick read. Gregory does manage to maintain her reader friendly prose, but... As the other reviewer mentioned, no character is likable, but that isn't really the problem. In much of Gregory's other works even characters making horrible choices are compelling and understood evoking reader sympathy. Their values and interests and backgrounds are explored and through this, their characters have depth. This depth is missing in this novel. Several comments in the narrative suggest that the author has no sympathy for the narcissistic-earth-mother-wack-job that is Alice Hartley.

The rest of cast are improbable characters, [I think these hint at minor plot developments, but others may see it as a spoiler, so if you're worried, skip to the next paragraph] who go on absurdly unlikely adventures. These including a woman who, having taken to her bed for roughy 50 years meets the lead character and begins hopping around happily and embarking on absurd ventures. Where were the bed sores? The atrophied muscles? The reflection on a wasted life? And then there's the improbable wedging of two dolphins (typically 7 to 13 feet long) into the backseat of a car (typically 5 feet wide) suggesting the book needed an editor capable of fact checking. Actually I kept wondering if Gregory and her publisher were in a fight over this silly book given just how weak it was compared to her usual standards.

The vaguely interesting elements of the story lay in the interactions between characters. Alice Hartley is a nutter, but away from her husband she manages to put together and lead a stupid, silly sex cult thing. She sees and exploits potential out of the other dysfunctional nutters who gather around her, but in the presence of her husband, she feels self-conscious and stupid. While he's a one dimensional prat, she's been content to let him demoralize her for years and suddenly leaves in a melodramatic tantrum. How this tanty qualifies her to heal other women who see their disappointing husbands as the reason their lives suck while taking no responsibility for themselves is unclear. Of course quick fixes (practice telling your husband to change your squalling brat's diapers) are about as unrealistic as that sudden reinvigoration of the bedridden character mentioned earlier, so...

The book's lack of depth make it seem a parable, but I'm not certain of the message it's trying to send. Don't be pathetic? Don't berate your wife? If you're going to deliver babies, make sure you've done more than just seen them on tv? Avoid starting idiot sex-mother-earth-goddess-rubbish if you're over thirteen? Despite all these failings, I still strangely enjoyed reading it - but it did have a train wreck quality.

I love Philippa Gregory's novels but this was one of the worst books I ever read. It truly had no point, the story was all over the place and the characters are not even likeable. There were some comedic elements to the plot, but otherwise left me wishing I hadn't wasted my time.