21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing life!, August 4, 2003
This review is from: Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education (Paperback)
Sybille Bedford, a little known but fabulous 20th century author, has written one of the most searingly-honest semi-autobiographies I've ever read. Bedford's "Legacy" is the story of her father, written as a novel, about events that occurred long before her birth. "Jigsaw", which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, continues the tale, with the author as the major character with her mother. Although obviously based on real events, the book is nevertheless written in novelistic style, and her portrayal of life between the wars and those she knew is beautiful and very compelling. Bedford was born of upper class parents, in a milieu where people had money but no jobs, traveled around the continent for extended periods, and settled in other countries on a whim, in the days when passports and identity papers weren't necessary. Her parents divorced, the story opens with Bedford and her father living on the family estate given to her father by her mother as a settlement--surrounded by priceless antiques, but without any cash, they barter for food and the necessities of life. A lonely child, educated only by her father, knowing only adults, Bedford's life changes radically upon her father's death, and she finds herself in Italy, then France, with her beautiful, mercurial mother. Bedford turns a critical, sometimes even harsh, eye on her own behavior, berating herself for running away as a child, for an adolescent crush on another woman, for her guilt when her mother goes away and peace is restored at home. Bedford and her mother are part of the pre-WWII community of artists, writers and free-spirits who roamed Europe in the calm before the great storm of the next war--she inhabits a world where letters are delivered and a response received all in one day, where busses and cars are still a novelty, where servants stay on even without pay because they have nowhere else to go. Sexual experimentation is the norm--this book reminds the reader that "free love" wasn't discovered in the 60's. One is keenly aware of the transience of this world, and shudders when Bedford's mother assures her that the lessons of The Great War were so horrible that there will never be another.
The tragic character in this book is the mother--one sees quickly that despite her intelligence her whole being is dependent on her ability to charm and attract men--when her second marriage goes awry the consequences are truly disastrous. The book ends abruptly at a crisis point in her mother's marriage when Bedford was 19 or 20--the reader says "But what happens next!?" I don't think there is any more--Bedford in the introduction says this is her last novel, and indeed she was in her late 80's when "Jigsaw" was published. Bedford deserves more recognition in the US--she is a premier European talent, and "Legacy" and "Jigsaw" are riveting stories.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best written books which I have read, December 3, 1997
By A Customer
This is an intelligent, highly engaging and fascinating novel. It mimics, both a travelogue and an autobiography. It leaves the reader itching to know how much of the story was based on the life experiences of the writer. The various relationships between the characters in the novel are quite unique and shocking yet entertaining.
I highly recommend this novel
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