As this 1987 Booker Prize winner opens, Claudia Hampton, a 76 year old journalist/historian, lies dying in a hospital bed in England. Before she dies, she is determined to write: "The history of the world as selected by Claudia: fact and fiction, myth and evidence, images and documents." She takes a kaleidoscope view of history and so her visitors trigger different memories from throughout her life. The central characters (and they are characters) in her life are her brother Gordon, daughter Lisa, Lisa's father Jasper and the lost love of Claudia's life, Tom Southern, a British tank commander killed in North Africa during WWII.
This book reminded me of, though it's much different than, The
Sportswriter or Rabbitt, Run.
Claudia is just such a consummate bitch, that it's hard to develop much
empathy for her. She's infuriating, self contradictory, selfish,
condescending, heartless, well, you pick a pejorative. But Lively
is such a wonderful writer that Claudia's life story becomes enthralling.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (B-)
