Customer Reviews

Talking to the Dead

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

There are some lovely elements to this book, not the least of which is the quality of the prose. Dunmore is clearly a talented writer and well-able to spin a moving tale. However.

Despite a promising start, this book about the relationship between two sisters never quite manags to gel. There are elements of a murder mystery, characters that you'd find in a Doris Lessing novel, and a plausible set up to bring the whole cast together. Taken individually, these things are fine, but instead of blending to a harmonious whole, the various aspects undermine each other and I found myself getting irritated by the skeletons in the closet while I was trying to concentrate on the emotional landscape.

Too bad.

I liked this book a lot. I didn't expect everything to be explained, because Nina the narrator doesn't know all the answers (for example, about Edward's role in Isabel's life); I didn't expect to be shocked by plot twists--the whole book moves like a magnet to its climax and conclusion. The interest came for me in the gorgeous writing, and in the author's ability to sustain a terrible tension, a sense of gathering doom, like a summer storm rolling in slowly, but with stunning force. I enjoyed imagining Isabel through the eyes of the various characters; and imagining how Isabel's various mental troubles developed and manifested through life, while she remained (on the surface) a perfectly functional woman. We keep getting new information that changes that imagined course, right up to the end; so maybe it's the unwritten parts of the story that kept me fascinated. I didn't read it very quickly--I spent a couple weeks reading it in short sittings at the gym--maybe that helped me remember it as more attenuated, more impressive in the way its tone is maintained.

This novel was completely haunting. I didn't even like the main characters of the story but I felt compelled to know what was going to happen. The description is luscious and sensual, particularly when she is describing food. The sex scenes are haunting because they are so dismissive. Even if you read this book only for the beautiful prose, you will find a story that is provacative and understated in its complexity.

What is this book about? At first, it seems like an ode to the peaceful rural life. Then, as the mood slowly blackens, it turns to the darker effects of isolation. Then it turns into a mystery and a compelling psychological novel rolled up in one.

The writing style is sparse and very effective, so even those not fascinated by the lengthy descriptions of nature at the beginning will be absorbed in the prose. The plot is compelling and well-paced. My only complaint is that the mystery comes and goes too quickly, before the reader is truly drawn in, but this is only a minor problem with a very good novel.

As the oldest of six children who resented the intrusion of the troop of younger siblings who invaded and "stole" her mother's attention, I could not put this book down. When you finish it, you are not at all sure that you were not part of the conspiracy. The author captured the enigma of the sibling relationship so expertly, the simultaneous love and jeolously, I felt exposed

My english professor had the class read this book.I thought it would take me forever to read the book, but i finished the book in one day. It is non-stop action. From betrayal to adultery, this book has it all. The symbolism in this book is emaculate, especially the cover. If you want to read a suspenseful novella that you will keep you wondering into the hours of the night read this one. Dunmore has wrote the classic who dun it.

...and that applies both to the author's style and to the characters she has created. The two sisters that are the center of this novel ceaselessly engage in manipulating each other -- and neither one of them are very likable, which made it difficult for me to like this book any more than I did. One of them is simply mean-spirited, and the other has the sexual appetite (as well as the sensitivity, morality and intelligence) of a gerbil. The author is a skillful writer, no doubt -- but if I find so little redeeming in her characters, it leaves only the suspense inherent in the story to hold my interest. There was some degree of that here -- but the endless goings-on about food and cooking allowed my interest to slide even further, a little like mentally driving on ice.

I felt the need to force myself to pay attention to the more important details -- the result was a not-too-pleasant reading experience. That's too bad -- when I read the jacket description, I had high hopes for this novel. The only real aspect of 'talking to the dead' that I found within it was the brief introduction, a soliloquy by one sister lying on the grave of the other which takes place after all of the events in the story.

I can recommend Sheri Reynolds incredible novel A GRACIOUS PLENTY, or even Rhiann Ellis' AFTER LIFE as more entertaining and true to this novel's alleged subject matter.

Isabel has just had her first baby, after a difficult delivery. Nina, a freelance photographer, comes to spend time with her sister at her house in England's South Downs, but almost immediately begins an intense sexual affair with Isabel's husband. It is Nina who tells the story; she is a warm sympathetic character while Isabel seems moody and neurotic; and the sexual descriptions are terrific. All the same, there is clearly something wrong in this family portrait, and Dunmore is marvelous at building mystery and suspense out of the tiniest events.

As in the only other Dunmore book that I have read, the Orange Prize winner A SPELL OF WINTER, there are secrets long buried in the childhood of the two siblings. These appear to center around the death in his cot of their infant brother Colin. Each has different memories of this event, but they may not be true memories and they contradict each other in significant ways. TALKING TO THE DEAD is a much less melodramatic novel than the almost-gothic WINTER, but it also depends on the elucidation of the past to explain the present and, with ominous foreboding, to predict the future. I greatly appreciated the relatively quiet development of the novel on the day-to-day level, and I was caught up in the growing suspense. But all the same, I felt that a denouement based simply on memories and dreams -- on who remembers what, in response to what trigger, and in what order -- is too disconnected from the present-day action to really work.

This book doesn't advertise itself as a horror story, but by the time the final twist is revealed, it becomes one of the most shocking novels in print, the more so because what happens could take place in almost any family. The visceral prose makes the incidents in the book extremely memorable, and the settings are vivid. One weakness for me was the narrator's love affair--it seemed to come out of nowhere, and didn't add much to the story, in my opinion, though I can practically recite every word of the sex scene. Another area that could have been improved was the description of the narrator's sister Isabel--we're told she's incredibly beautiful, but I would have preferred some more concrete descriptions, as her presence wasn't as strong as I think it should have been. But as a study of family psychology and the greed for parental attention that every child feels, "Talking to the Dead" succeeds with a macabre honesty. I thought about the book long after I had finished it.

Talking to the Dead, Helen Dunmore
An English writer, therefore, she really knows how to wield the language. Always a pleasure to read the Brits!
Isabel and Nina `Neen'. Who is the bad one? An absent father and mother who is a potter and largely stays in her room. Ruined by the death of the new baby Colin. Did one of the girls kill him? Evil lurks, Gothic style. Beastly hot weather and impending horrific storm, a dangerous murderous sea, a remote house in the country, where Isabel has constructed gardens with paths that meander meaninglessly. Fabulous word images. Ineffectual men, driven by their separate lusts. An oblivious young aspiring nanny. Dark everywhere you look and little redemption. But this is really a great book.