Memories [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Seal Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0770420133
• ISBN-13: 978-0770420130
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,714,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlotte Vale-Allen was born in Toronto and lived in England from 1961 to 1964 where she worked as a television actress and singer. She returned to Toronto briefly, performing as a singer until she emigrated to the US in 1966. She sold her first novel Love Life in 1974. Prior to this book's publication she contracted to do a series of paperback originals, with the result that in 1976 three of her books appeared in print. Her autobiography, the acclaimed Daddy's Girl, was actually the first book she wrote but it wasn't until 1980, after she'd gained success as a novelist, that the groundbreaking book was finally published. One of Canada's most successful novelists, with over seven million copies sold of her 39 books, Ms. Allen's work has been published in all English-speaking countries, in Braille, and have been translated into more than 20 languages. The mother of an adult daughter and grandmother of twins, since 1970 she has made her home in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt!, June 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Memories (Paperback)

This book and Matters of the Heart are both set in England during the Second World War. They couldn't, however, be more different. That is not to say that Matters of the Heart is, in any way, an inferior book--rather, it's just profoundly, completely different. Memories (like Leftover Dreams) deals with a pair of sisters. But that's where the similarities end. Dealing with two generations of women and ably demonstrating how the "sins" of the mother are often visited on the child, the mother in this case is as much a victim of the times as she is of an oddly disaffected husband. I loved this book; it is one of my favorites. It covers a lot of time and a lot of territory (London, Switzerland, Toronto, Connecticut) and conveys a wonderful sense of time and place. Again, Allen avoids the convenient happy ending and goes for something far more honest--another example of a woman finding herself. No one writes about the interior lives of women as honestly or as effectively as this author does. And Memories is a prime example of Allen in peak form. Just a terrific book!