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60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreak and healing, July 9, 2010
This review is from: The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise: A Novel (Hardcover)
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The humor the author writes with never diminishes the heartbreak the characters feel, and I think I liked this most about the book. I felt like the author's main message was, "Life's tough, but it does go on, and finding humor and love along the way helps." The cast of animals and the stories about the history of the Tower and its prisoners (and ghosts) is interesting and fun without distracting from the lives of the beefeater, his wife, and the many other characters. All of the characters have their heartbreak to deal with - for some it's loneliness, for another it's feeling abandoned, and for others it's suffering the grief of the death of a loved one. Just about any hurt we might have to deal with in life is presented with ways to cope and heal illustrated in the characters' lives, often with humor and honest emotion. The way the characters deal with their problems and help one another to find something new to try when one idea has failed, is not just funny, but heartfelt, creative and genuine. There is more to the story than life at the Tower. There is another world to be explored at the Lost and Found, where Hebe (the wife of Balthazar, who is appointed the one in charge of the queen's new animal menagerie) works. Although several small stories take place simultaneously, it's easy to follow each story and the intersections with other characters. I also liked how Hebe's passion for her work ends up helping her in her own life: She meets friends who help her find something she's lost in her life - hope. The ending felt perfect. Resolution, realization, a plan one worried didn't work the way he wanted it to worked better than he thought. This book satisfied more than I thought - it was deeper, more thought-provoking and had more substance than just a light read. I ended it feeling a bit more hopeful and aware about life's mysteries and quirkiness, the value of finding humor to get through the rough patches, and treasuring the animals that help me along the way.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Whimsical and delightful!, June 26, 2010
This review is from: The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Everybody knows about the Beefeaters in the Tower of London, of course, but it's unlikely you ever knew one personally. In this light- hearted novel you will meet the denizens of the Tower: Beefeater or Yeoman of the Tower Balthazar Jones along with his Greek wife, Hebe, are barely holding on to a marriage gone stale. We are introduced to the Reverend Septimus Drew, the Tower parson, who secretly pens erotic novels under the pen name Vivienne Ventriss. We meet Ruby Dore, the sexy barmaid of the Tower's pub Rack and Ruin, who was born "slithering" on to a kitchen floor because the resident Tower doctor would not leave his Monopoly game at a crucial moment in play to attend the crucial moment upstairs. And there's the black-gloved villain, the Ravenmaster, who looks after his flock of vicious black birds, one of which recently sent a tourist to the hospital when the unfortunate man tried to pet the bird. And there's Arthur Catnip, the Ticket Master and his voluptuous girlfriend Valerie... Hebe Jones works at the London Underground Lost Property Office and tries to unite the careless public with their left-behind objects which include, along with hundreds of umbrellas, a kidney transplant, an urn of ashes labeled "Clementine Perkins" and a yellow canoe. We cannot overlook Mrs. Cook, the 180 year old tortoise belonging to Balthazar Jones and who lost her tail to one of the ravens. We briefly meet in retrospect the Jones' little boy Milo, who dies at age eleven and with him dies the spirit of the marriage, only dregs are left. At this point in time there really aren't any happy campers among the Tower personnel, trapped inside those ancient circular walls. Elizabeth II has arrived at a momentous decision: all the exotic creatures constantly being more or less dumped on her royal head would be housed at the Tower, which had been used as a menagerie for centuries. There isn't any enthusiasm behind Tower walls over this bombshell of the Queen's but who are they to resist the will of the Monarch? However, Hebe Jones finds the menagerie the last straw, packs a bag and leaves her husband who has been hand-picked to be the reluctant director of this latter day Noah's Ark. Even old Mrs. Cook the tortoise, disappears. But they learn something from the animals foisted upon them, these human denizens of the Tower."The softness of the reclusive ringtail possums who fall asleep in their arms"; the albatross who has lost his mate and is mourning; the bearded pig who chases a grapefruit around like a soccer ball; the Jesus Christ lizards who can walk on water and even the little Etruscan shrew with his velvet nose. The animals, who all need care, take the humans out of themselves and thinking instead about the welfare of the various critters in their charge. True love will find a way over rocky roads and thorn thickets. Will Hebe come back? Will Mrs Cook find her way home? Don't miss this heart-warming tale, written with great charm, in which the spirit of the little boy Milo weaves the story together and brings it to a close. .
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book of the year, August 14, 2010
This review is from: The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise: A Novel (Hardcover)
I've never read anything like this wonderful, warm and wacky book. Set largely within the Tower of London, the book is packed from start to finish with fun and quirky characters and scenarios. In the midst of the array of intertwining narratives, the history of the Tower of London is revealed throughout. Overall, it is just a delightful book. The story follows Balthazar and Hebe Jones; he is one of the famous Beefeaters who staff the Tower of London, while she is a clerk at the London Underground's Lost Property Office. The couple lives in the Tower along with the other Beefeater families, and they have suffered a tragedy in their lives which is a thread that is slowly revealed throughout the book. They are struggling with their 30-year-old marriage while going about their daily lives surrounded by eccentric characters who provide some much-needed levity to the book. In the meantime, all manner of interesting objects turn up at Hebe's Lost Property office and this provides another round of fun and funny anecdotes. This book was such an unbelievable pleasure to read. At times it seemed like the story was going to float off into the giddy ether, only to be guided back by the steady hand of the author. It struck the perfect balance between hope and sadness. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend to anyone.
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