Customer Reviews

The Power of Persuasion

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

 

 

This book began with an interesting premise and I was hopeful. After the first 20 pages, however, I was disappointed. Most frustrating were the lengthy digressions about travel or rugby that did nothing to further the plot. The dialogue was stilted and unreal. The characters undeveloped and I never figured out where the plot was going or exactly what it was. It wasn't another hokey takeoff on Pride and Prejudice by our beloved Austen, but could have been very clever and interesting. I wish this author more time, a very good editor, because I sense a spark of good writing that was just not realized in this book.

I am a Jane Austen fan, but this book has very little to do with Austen, other than the names of a couple of characters. The plot is disconnected and episodic. I found it very hard to care about any of the poorly developed characters. Their actions have almost no motivation. The reader is not given enough information in a coherent way about the characters to identify with them or understand them. The book contains accounts of many rounds of golf and gives minute descriptions of various geographical locations. Often the travelogues have very little to do with the story. The ending is shocking, but not in a good way. The novel just does very little to set up for what happens. This novel might have made a workable short story, with the deletion of the many irrelevant travel accounts and the addition of more information about the characters.

I think I'd like Beth as a friend. She has lots of interesting little experiences to share that would be fun in a conversation. But they don't come together to create a story. In a novel, if I'm told about someone ruining a former roommate's tablecloth it needs to be so that I can understand the personality of that roommate as she is part of the story today, not just as an aside that has no bearing on the story. Most of the book is made up of unrelated happenings and minor characters that appear and disappear with little rhyme or reason, and the main plot starts late is is never fully developed.

I think perhaps this should have been a short story involving Beth, Mr. D'Arcy, and John. Some of the other rememberances in the book could be developed into their own short stories. Then the book could be published as a collection of short stories about Beth, each complete in itself.

-Lisa Hall Deckert

I love to read, i like classics, history, romance, sci fi, mysteries, whatever, i'll read. What was this book about?! i mean the author is all over the place. There is no plot. I read and read and kept asking, where is she now? where is she going with this? The beginning made me think the author was trying to build something but then it vanished and it was either the same thing over and over again or something else being thrown in as filler. I don't think i've reviewed non-textbooks on amazon but after the being patient in the hopes of finally figuring out where the author is going and not finding it, i decided this is the worst i've read.
I'd nothing to do besides being driven to Tulsa and spending eternity in transit and i think my time would have been better spent napping than reading this.

Apparently I'm in a minority. I like this book. Let's see, what does is lack? Car chases, shootemups, explicit sex, explosions, murders, messages, wise-guy cops, riding off into the sunset, etc. It's missing all that. You want that stuff, read a different book.

So, given that, what's to like? Everything. It reads like an easy-going memoir that describes some time in the life of an interesting young woman, told from her perspective, living a life like real people lead, people who live outside the pages of a book. Life is not a continuous thread of tightly related, interwoven events. It has its highs and lows, its fun and its enigmas, its successes and its insecurities, and that's what you find here. With a small, unsolved, unimportant mystery that threads aimlessly throughout the story.

For a guy, reading this book is like peeping into the diary of an interesting girl. Maybe that's why the lady reviewers here don't like it as much as we do.

I must admit, it took me a long time to finish this book. It's not a page-turner, not compelling like a plate of fudge or a Chuck Berry tune. It just wafts along from here to there carrying the reader with it. So, when I found myself with time to spare, I returned to the book and read a few pages.

What is compelling is the writing. We Yanks love the lilt of a young Scottish/English girl's voice, and it comes through loud and clear in this book. I think it was not well-received here because it is not an ordinary book. Which is what I like about it.

I was confused from the early pages of this book. The narrator, Beth, begins by discussing how she is frequently upset by what is in the Sunday paper. A frequent offender is F. William D'Arcy. His main offense? He gave a movie that she liked a negative review and he also doesn't like short blonde women with large breasts (I'm not familiar with Scottish newspapers, but is it normal for a journalist to be allowed to just vent spleen against women, especially women who are a certain physical type? And then invite his readers to mail in pictures of "hideous" women? This sounds more like Howard Stern than a newspaper columnist).

She writes a letter to him and then she begins seeing him everywhere. Weirdly, she never gets any better at recognizing him. It's like she can't remember what he looks like from one day to the next. There's a fire at her house and some firefighters see her panties and get excited. Beth learns how to drive. She plays a lot of golf and watches some rugby games. She goes to buy a desk and decides to get a sofa instead. She receives a Christmas card addressed to somebody else and it is signed "Bill." She assumes it must be from D'Arcy, as she determines it couldn't be from anybody else (Again, not sure about Scotland, but I've met dozens and dozens of people named "Bill" and "William" in the U.S.).

One phrase I quickly learned to dread throughout this book was ". . . and that made me think of . . . " or any variation of that. The narrative, between golf games and sightings of D'Arcy, consists of Beth just remembering things that have happened to her. I'm not talking about interesting stuff either, but things like when her college roommate ruined a tablecloth by washing it with a red shirt, or the time she was almost late getting ready for a date. These stories are soul-achingly dull and, to this reader, they don't tie into the action of the book or illustrate greater themes. Every now and then Beth does let something interesting drop but then no further details are provided (she mentioned that she was a "boy's Olympic gymnastics coach," without ever saying which Olympics she went to, how she balanced graduate school and/or employement with being an elite coach, or why she quit. Boys aren't even strong enough to do gymnastics on the Olympic level, so this was a very confusing career anyway). Beth travels a lot and these vacations are described in great detail -- but we never get any closer to understanding what it is like to be in a specific place, just things like the fact that Jerusalem is a holy city for three different faiths and Tel Aviv is hot.

The novel is peppered with absolutely inane statements: "This is one of the joys of the twenty-first century: the ability to watch a film adaptation of a favourite novel at home. I don't expect everyone will enjoy films based on books and accept that poor adaptations deserve poor reviews, but excellent productions deserve reviews that reflect their excellence," "Christmas is supposed to be a time for children but it is also true to say that Christmas is a time for women," "Men cannot personally experience all-women company; they can observe groups of women on firlm or on television, but cannot, ipso facto, be present themselves."

The experience of reading this book was frustrating for me because it was so unclear what the author was trying to do. Was Beth supposed to be so dull and dim-witted? What is the point of putting so many Austen references in a book without making them part of a coherent whole? Why was the central romance so under-described and unromantic?

This book takes the reader on a journey to far away places and reads like non-fiction. Romance is an integral part of this story that develops unexpectedly. The Power of Persuasion as a title may be a misnomer for this book; however it is a key element in shaping the characters and the climax.
Shelagh Watkins has shown that she is a good story teller and writer. Shelagh's writing style is uniquely her own. Reading this novel with its twists and turns keeps the reader full of anticipation.

I can highly recommend Shelagh Watkins' debut novel, Power of Persuasion.

Not only is the premise intriguing, but the easy narrative style makes for an enjoyable and fascinating read.

When F William D'Arcy, columnist and film critic for the Sunday Guardian, writes a provocative critique of an adaption of one of Jane Austen's novels, Beth Durban feels duty bound to respond. However, her letter sets in motion a chain of events that will change her life forever.

Fiercely independent, Beth leads an interesting, and busy life, travelling all over the world attending academic conferences and visiting friends. On her way home from work one evening, Beth calls into the local supermarket, and becomes aware of a fair-haired man following her. The man turns out to be none other than F William D'Arcy. Beth finds his attention unwelcome, especially as she is undergoing pulse dyed laser treatment for a prominent facial birthmark, and spends most of her time behind dark glasses regardless of whether she is indoors or out.

With the laser treatment successfully completed, Beth and D'Arcy's paths continue to cross until she begins to see him almost weekly. Is it a coincidence, or has D'Arcy sent an army of his minions to spy on her?

When a work colleague offers to teach her to drive Beth fails to realise that he might have an ulterior motive for doing so. Shortly after passing her test Beth embarks on a shopping trip and encounters D'Arcy. This time the tables are turned and she follows him. To find out what happens next you'll have to read the book!

Written completely from Beth's point of view, the reader is quickly drawn into her world.