Rating: 3/5
Review:
Rather disappointing
From The Heart has its moments, but from a writer of Susan
Hill's quality I found it rather disappointing.
This is the story of Olive, an intelligent young woman in
the post war years; it is a character study which examines the effect of the
attitudes of the time on her life and its subsequent development. We get accounts of restrictive views of
"suitable" careers for women, sex, single parenthood, homosexuality
and so on. Hill writes superbly, as
always. She creates believable characters
and is particularly good at conveying the recognisably subtle emotional nuances
which sometimes cause Olive not to stop something she isn’t happy about, or to
fail to act when she probably should, and which can have such a profound effect
as a result. She is very good, too, at
conveying things like the sense of starting in a new college, or joining a
school for one's first teaching job.
For me, though, this wasn't quite enough. There was a sense of going over very
well-trodden ground, and however well done it was, I didn't think it added much
to our insight into or understanding of the age and its effect on women. I came away with the sense of having read a
well-written story with a few memorable moments, but nothing much beyond that.
I'm sorry to be critical, but I think Susan Hill can do much
better than this (in her brilliant Serrailler series, for example). From The Heart is certainly readable, but I
can't recommend it much beyond that.
(I received an ARC from Netgalley.)
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