Customer Reviews

Meet Me Under the Ombu Tree

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

 

 

If you like melodrama, convoluted romance, South American telenovelas, and crying while reading stories, "Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree" is a novel for you. Santa Montefiore, who is half-Argentinian, but lives in Great Britain, managed to create a book full of clichés from popular soap operas from Latino television. Unfortunately, this is not what I expect from literature from that part of the world, so I was quite disappointed.

Sofia Solanas, the heroine of this novel, is a daughter of Paco Solanas, one of the four sons of the wealthy landowner Hector Solanas, who managed to create a heaven on Earth on his rancho, Santa Catalina, where all his children built their family homes. Paco met Sofia's mother, Anna Melody O'Dwyer, in London, and the two fell in love from the first minute they laid eyes on each other, Anna left her parents and her native Ireland and came to Argentina, where she gave birth to two sons and Sofia. The story of Paco and Anna is given in retrospective, as the core is Sofia's life starting in early 1970s, since she has been a little girl, a stubborn tomboy who loves playing polo, the favorite sport of the men in the area.

Unfortunately, Sofia is especially fond of her cousin, Santi, who likes her very much as well. When after his studies in the US Santi returns home, they give in to the forbidden love against all odds, and this leads to Sofia's exile and many sad years following.

Everything can be found in this book: love from the first sight, patient, waiting love, incest, physical abuse, marital unfaithfulness, betrayed friendship, illegitimate child, sliding into poverty, purely sexual affairs... Additionally, the author tries to provide a background of current events in Argentina (the death of Juan Peron, the military dictatorship) and to connect the characters with these events, which results in more drama (the exile of Fernando, Santi's brother, to Uruguay), but just adds to what is already too much. It is definitely overdone - sometimes, really, less is more. Besides, there are irritating explanations of obvious things, such as that the seasons in Argentina are shifted by half a year in comparison to England, or what mate is.

The language is very much like a school essay, with many sequences where the sentences do not follow the logic, or with complex sentences that are plainly wrong. It is, in literary categories, a mediocre text, which nevertheless can evoke emotions and is easy to read fast, but equally easy to forget.

I had this book read to me on audio cassette. I was so bewitched, I listened to it twice in a row. The reading takes 22+ hours and since I drive a lot, it was the perfect timing for me. But truly, this is one of the best books I have ever
"read" and now plan on buying a hard copy so I can share it with my friends and family that do not have that much time in a car to listen. Please, read this book if you LOVE reading as I do!!!

THIS BOOK I REALLY ENJOYED READING,IT REALLY CAPTIVATES YOU
I COULDNT PUT IT DOWN TILL I WAS DONE READING IT;
THE FORBIDDEN LOVE BETWEEN SOFIA AND SANTI IS VERY PASSIONATE,
UNFORTUNATELY FATE FORCED THEM APART...BUT THEIR LOVE
NEVER DIED...READ IT YOU WONT REGRET IT.

I'm surprised this book received so many 5-starred reviews. Although the story kept me reading, a credit to the author, I felt impatient and disgusted with the heroine, Sofia, most of the time. What a selfish, spoiled character! So many things she did that were less than admirable--especially after she returned home to Argentina. But let's start with the baby. How on earth could a mother leave her child like that? And with so little thought, apparently. She just decided whe wouldn't raise it, and no matter how anyone tried to reason with her, she gave him up. I don't know how a mother could do that. And then when she returned to Argentina, without a passing thought for the consequences, she jumped into an affair with her cousin, knowing he's married and has children. Again, it's all about Sofia. I felt so bad for her loving husband back in England--not to mention her daughters. Hey, I'm not a prude. One of my novels features a heroine who cheats on her husband--but only because he's a serial cheater. I just flat-out didn't like Sofia. Also, I didn't really feel the depth of the love that Sofia and Santi apparently felt for each other. (One of my favorite books is NEVER CALL IT LOVING by Dorothy Eden, a novel of the forbidden love between Charles Parnell and his married mistress, Kitty O'Shea, and their love for each other brought me to tears.) I most definitely wouldn't read another book by this author.