Customer Reviews

Love Falls: A Novel (P.S.)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed this passionate indictment of the callous world of the rich, privileged, and amoral artistic class. Not only is it beautifully written, Freud perfectly captures the sexually abusive indifference of the very rich and sophisticated toward youth, innocence, love, and parental responsibility.

At first Lara seems to lead a charmed life, traveling to fabulous Italian villas for a leisurely vacation with her famous father. Who could ask for more? Except, very subtly, very slowly the veil drops, and we see that Lara is for the first time encountering her father's world of the uber rich, where being rich not only means having more money, it means expecting to get your way without needing to care if you hurt anyone, or even if you rape them. You're rich and you get to do whatever you want.

Poor Lara is sweetness and innocence violated, who triumphs using her intelligence and greatness of understanding to forgive her father, as she proves herself his superior in sensibility and every human feeling that matters.

I found this book to be the most truthful representation of life among the rich and depraved that I've ever read. It has its sordid moments because the rich can afford to wallow in depravity and are so well insulated from life that they don't notice how callous and hard they have become. I loved Lara and her courage to face the terribly cruel and heartless world she found herself immersed in without the protection of a loving family. As the daughter of a famous intellectual, all she has is some financial security, (certainly something many young people could envy), but otherwise she is being thrown into the most vicious, competitive, unforgiving arena imaginable, the world of the sophisticated, overly wealthy, privileged class.

I found this book riveting, heartbreaking, far truer than the naughtiest gossip column, and ultimately uplifting as Lara refuses to become another victim or more fodder for the tabloids. If you want to get over you class envy, start with "Love Falls".

As much as I enjoyed "Hideous Kinky", I found "Love Falls" to be far superior.

I admit I bought this because of the cover, and I am glad I did because I really enjoyed it. I can relate to the characters because of Ms. Freud's descriptions, both emotionally and aesthetically. It is a vivid book, one can visualize the summer heat and feel the energy of anticipation in desire and curiosity. If you were ever a teenager you will appreciate and be reminded of all those exciting and frustrating moments. I think those are all lovely to remember, and Ms. Freud does an excellent job of reminding us of how it felt. If you are expecting erotica or graphic moments, you won't find it here, this is far better. I have never read any of her other books, but I will be reading them soon.

I have followed Esther Freud's writing career almost from the very beginning, mainly because we're the same age and I was curious what a novelist of my generation might have to say. When I first "discovered" her, Freud had only published two novels, Hideous Kinky (1991) and Peerless Flats (1994), of which I read the latter - the former was soon after turned into the eponymous film featuring Kate Winslet, at which point Freud's writing career seemed assured. Of her subsequent novels I greatly admired Summer at Gaglow (1997), which uses her German/British intercultural heritage to great effect, but didn't quite know what to make of The Sea House (2003).

With Love Falls she returns to the mind world of the teenage girl, which I suppose is what she does best. Of course I can't really tell, as I don't know it from the inside, but it looks convincing to the bystander. It is July 1981 (as readers are supposed to know due to the references to the wedding of Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer, but I had to look it up!), and our protagonist, Lara, 17 (born in spring 1964, so also my generation), embarks on a trip to Italy with her father, which means she's going to spend more time with him than she has in the past 17 years put together. That's probably already true by the end of the epic train journey that takes them to Siena.

She is thrown into the strange world of wealthy British expats in Tuscany, which in fact feels quite similar to the world described in the Bertolucci movie Stealing Beauty, except that the rather likable heap of artists lounging round the pool in that movie is replaced with a not quite so sympathetic gang who are there to save their inherited wealth from the UK tax authorities.

Lara's summer in Tuscany includes a wide and interesting range of experiences and emotions, and trying to make sense of them she reflects back to memories of her previous foreign adventure, an overland trip to India with her mother (which of course reminds us of Hideous Kinky).

Parts of the novel are disturbing enough to ensure it doesn't end up on the "light summer reading" shelf, but still, the Tuscan sun does add to the reading pleasure, and teenage angst and confusion looks much more photogenic by the Love Falls (as in waterfalls) than in the dreary backyards of Peerless Flats, so I reckon for anybody who doesn't know Freud's work yet, Love Falls might be a good place to start.

be transported to italy via the world of family and love and u will enjoy this ... book, freud is exceptional. the book is in great condition

i enjoyed this book quite a bit. it was different from what i had been reading at the time and was a nice change of pace.

Being an angliophile and having spent 2 weeks renting a Tuscan Villa, this book sounded perfect to me! I enjoyed the descriptions of the Italian countryside, and it truly transported me back to my time in Tuscany and particularly Siena.

The writing was very descriptive of the landscape of Italy, and in general I felt the story flowed, except for the reminisces of Lara and Cathy's trip to India. I wished the history between Lambert and Andrew was expolored more. In general I felt like the plot was slow to develop and the author didn't really know where to take it in the end.

I can imagine this as a film, as there were so many characters and the scenery would be fabulous. I think a good scriptwriter could craft it into an enjoyable film, and do something better with the ending of the book (which was a huge disappointment).

All in all a good book, but in the end I'll remember the descriptions of the Palio and Italy more than the plot and the characters.....

Seventeen years old Lara accompanied her mother as they toured the Far East together. Back at home in England, her dad Lambert invites her to come with him to Italy.

Though a bit nervous as she has spent little time with dad, Lara jumps at the opportunity to spend time with her father as Lambert is a bit of a hermit. They spend the summer together in a Tuscan villa whose neighbors include a family of British millionaires with one Kip Willoughby being cute and her age. As Kip and Lara spend time together, she flirts outrageously with him until she begins to hear rumors that he is her half-brother. Did her father as an act of vengeance sire the lad to get back at his grandfather for deserting Lamb's parents during WWII in Germany? Or is just inane gossip?

When the story line focuses on Lara, the audience receives a deep fascinating character study as readers see her dad, her mom, the boy next door and others through her eyes. When the tale centers on Kip's parentage, it loses steam as it veers into overly melodramatic. Still following the escapades of the teen heroine is a charmer that will send the audience seeking other works from Esther Freud (see HIDEOUS KINKY; not read by this reviewer).

Harriet Klausner

How disappointing this book was for such a reputable writer--a hodge-podge of contrived characters and plot thrown together, all reminiscent of other stories. And Tuscany again? Descriptions and past experiences in Scotland and Tibet, as well of Prince Charles' and Princess Diana's wedding (with comments that weren't known until after their wedding), keep popping up as if the author were using them as fillers. The book rushes like the Palio horse race she describes in such laborious detail. When Lara isn't sitting by the pool, looking in the mirror, or watching the preparation of endless gourmet Italian meals, she is running through various houses and the Italian countryside. With its thinly-drawn borish characters, this is an exhausting and annoying read that I only skimmed through because none of it rings true.

I must admit the only reasons I bought this book was because the description in Glamour magazine "...talks about a girl's sexual awakening," and the arthor is Sigmund Freud's great granddaughter. If I like Sigmund Freud as a psych major and is a sex maniac, I might as well check this book out. The factors that cause my motivation to read this book are intrestingly, related, too. Sexual awakening and Sigmund Freud? What a great coincidence, because great-grandfather was known as his psychosexual theory, just in case you don't know.After reading this book, I realized if you focused too much on the sex part (like I did), you would be disappointed. This is not another fiction that discovers the sex orgies, rather, Freud covered many themes, like the exotic settings and flashback, the father-and-daughter relationship, and the coming of age.

The exotic settings and flashback are not latent as they seem. Although the story takes places in Italy, the author mixed many other exotic scenes based on Lara and her mother's so-called spiritual trip in India and hitchhiking. The Italian exotic scenes symbolized the things Lara has never tried, like Kip, the first real romance, and the discovery of her own sexuality. Even though Lara did visit many other exotic places and people, fall in love many times, lose her virginity in nonconsequential circumstances, she was not prepared for the adventure in Italy and never ready for the "real encounter." If Freud was to give any moral by the story, it would be that we often overrate ourselves to those new things we have never tried. The exotic settings give us a sense of novelty, but also hidden danger. Even though the flashback gave us some ideas of Lara's mother, Cathy, I still felt that the information was inadequate and the motivation behind the flashback was unclear. Although the exotic elements do tell us something about the characters' past and shed some light on their character, I believe Freud could do better than that.

The father-and-daughter relationship was something I realized not until towards the end of the book. It was probably due to the flashback with Cathy. Plus, Lambert seemed rather distant from Lara; the terse conversation they had showed that their relationship was light and loose, but the bond exists. Knowing Isabelle's coming, Lara asked Lambert to Love Falls. But most of the time, Lara also held back a lot from Lambert. But as the story proceeds, Lambert seems to know more than Lara and the readers expect, not only literally on history, news, and scholar knowledge, but also latently on Isabelle, Kip's mom, and Andy Willoughby. Caroline, Lambert's friends, did serve as some kind of block between Lambert and Lara, since she obviously had a deeper relationship with Lambert than Lara did. But after she died, the block was gone and Lara was able to hold on the grip again, when she hysterically rushed to hospital regardless she could have a free time with Kip. And at the end, even though Lara struggled through asking Lambert about Kip's identity, eventually she asked the key question, and at that instant the bond was built stronger than before, this time, obviously.

And the two elements stated above, in my opinion, completed Lara's coming of age. There were sure other internal factors, like her own awakening desire from within. Lara transformed from a take-only child to a take-and-give adult, as we could see from the fact that she earnestly wanted to go to the hospital to take care of Lambert and Caroline. While the "real adults (really funny, why did Lambert jump off from the cliff? to show of in front of Isabelle?)" banned her from leaving the house, by and by she finally left the house, broke free from the immature of youth, and took charge of Lambert and her departure. From the inside, Lara's naming her vulva (I though I would never use this word except for anatomy use :P) and examining herself naked before the mirror were anotheracts of self-discovering and acceptance. Her throwing up out of disgust and conflict can be juxtaposed with Polio. Polio would be the climax of the summer adventure and latently the sexual orgasm, while the throwing up would be a coming of age ritual-washing away the old childish self and starting in the just-mature adulthood.

I was rather impatient when it came to the exotic description because I was only lured by sex encounters. What do those depiction have to do with the sexual awakening? But after upon finishing the tale and rethinking about the whole picture, the book was more than just a summer fling. Freud did perform a good job not only on adolescence but also life. However, I think she could do better than just this. I know life may not be intense and strong, but in my opinion I think a novel should be. Other than that, I was fooled by Glamour magazine. So my suggestion is: never trust a fashion magazine to give you fair recommendation on fictions, because it will only give you the wrong idea. Fashion magazines, after all, are still fashion magazines.