Review : An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi

Title : An Absolute Scandal
Author: Penny Vincenzi
ISBN: 978-0755320844
Rating : 6/10
Great for : Holidays

What a manically busy week it’s been, I’m knackered!  I have, however, found time to finally finish my much talked about Penny Vincenzi – it’s taken me what, a month?  (In my defence it’s about 900 pages long and I did read two other books in between).

The plot revolves around several characters during the Lloyds debacle in the 80s.  The central characters, mainly all incredibly wealthy Chelsea-dwellers, lose a lot of money over the course of a few years and we get an insight as to the ripple effect of this – how it affects families, relationships, jobs etc.  And of course, there are juicy affairs aplenty.

Okay, so after investing a month of my life in An Absolute Scandal, why did I only give it a 6?

Well, I found the characters all a bit blah to be honest with you.  Every single main character is incredibly good looking, immensely charming, all amazingly intellectual (even the “dumb blonde” of the book surprised her lawyer by concocting an amazing money saving financial loophole) and I just found this quite tedious after a while.  Everyone was like a caricature, and as a consequence they were all quite one-dimensional to me.

Also, I take full responsibility for this one because I should have known what a P.V. would be all about, none of the characters learnt anything from the financial crisis they face.  I may just be reading this in the wrong decade – I think the past 12 months have taught a lot of people (me included) that money isn’t the answer to everything and money isn’t happy.  Although in An Absolute Scandal, it is.  Female characters who aren’t financially independent end up hooking up with rich men (phew, happily ever after then!), a major “hardship” a character has to endure is living in a luxury flat in London instead of being able to move to a mansion in Gloucestershire (heavens, the cruelty!), the father of a family of four dies but it’s not ALL bad because he leaves behind a huge life insurance payout (again, phew!), and a plummy teenager who gets a job as a hairdresser (much to her parents’ horror) eventually marries a stinking rich American and instead plans to be the owner of a chain of salons, not just a “mere” hairdresser (ah, all’s right with the world then!).  I would love for just one character to be left penniless, but happy.

Another annoying thing is that the “absolute scandal”, the Lloyds problem, was never actually resolved.  It started to build up quite nicely – we get introduced to the “baddies”,  the characters even employ a high profile female lawyer to battle it out in court (but do we get a chance to see her fabulous intelligence, shrewd litigation skills etc? No, we learn she likes to wear red high heels and the male characters all fancy her. Whoop.)

I know, I know, it’s a P.V., what did I expect?   I blame myself entirely!

A few of you have said you’ve read this, so I’d be interested to hear what you think.

Review : An Amateur Marriage

Title : An Amateur Marriage
Author: Anne Tyler
ISBN: 0-09-949987-8
Rating : 7/10
Great for :

Read this in two sittings!  One minor stretch on a Sunday night, then pretty much all afternoon/evening on Monday which of course was during the great Murray v Wawrinka showdown on centre court.  Apparently it was a good game, though of course my nose was too wedged in The Amateur Marriage to notice.  Shoestring Alley I blame you for recommending this 🙂

Not really, a  THANK YOU for the suggestion because I did enjoy the book.  Anne Tyler always writes with such simplicity yet manages to do it so powerfully, it’s always a joy to read.   This is basically a boy meets girl story, they get married and have kids.  It sounds simple, it’s a portrayal of millions of lives across the globe, but Anne Tyler really picks up on the little things, the little conversations, the observations, the arguments, the simple joy of daily life. 

The author’s style is a bit alarming at first, from one chapter to another you can easily jump 10 years.  It’s almost like getting a snapshot of their lives at major points and I was worried that I wouldn’t feel any concern for the characters as a result. I was wrong, you want to know what happens at the end (hence the mention of the unwatched match!).

Having said the above I gave it a 7/10 because while it was a good read, I don’t think Anne Tyler stepped out of her comfort zone at all.  You never got the feeling she was really pushing herself, and that she did just knock the book out as part of a days work.  It t just didn’t quite have the lustre of her earlier works, perhaps.

Finally, there’s one thing I didn’t like about the plot, but can’t tell you what it is for fear of giving the end away.  Suffice it to say, I was a bit cross!  But that’s just personal preference and has nothing to do with the author’s writing style.

JULY BOOK GROUP ANNOUNCEMENT

This month’s choice was kindly chosen by Caroline and is…drumroll please…. The Resurrectionist by James Bradley.  You can read the blurb here.

Hopefully you know what to do -leave us a message to let us know you’re taking part and so we can enter you into the GIVEAWAY…. and get reading!

Questions will be posted in the third week of July.