General Chat

Please review The Little House and The Other Hand.

I have put this up early in case I forget.

Ann
Glos

Review The Little House by Philippa Gregory

Quite different from her historical novels, a psychological thriller. I wasn’t sure who was the most to be pitied, Ruth or Elizabeth. How come Ruth didn’t realise that Patrick was trying to impregnate her? The constant drip drip of Elizabeth’s taking over of Ruth’s life and child was uncomfortable and I felt sorry for Ruth. But Elizabeth trying to re-create her child in her Grandson was sad too, I kept feeling what a good life they should have been able to have all together. Patrick, I felt was pathetic and Frederick I was never sure if he was taken over by his wife or whether he too was controlling.
I didn’t see the end coming and I am not sure it would have qualified as the perfect murder. Can’t help feeling that Ruth would not have got away with it so easily. But I did like how at the end Ruth had turned into Elizabeth and felt that as far as Patrick and Frederick were concerned, it served them right!!!

Ann
Glos

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

A brilliant piece of writing - Very different. An insight into immigration centres and the possible reason somebody may see assylum in UK. I loved Charlie (Batman), so realistically portrayed. It was just a very good read. I wont say any more as we are asked not to give the plot away.

Ann
Glos

The Other Hand
This story has an unusual plot. It gives an insight into the situation of the people in countries affected by the actions of the oil companies. It also shows the dangers to outsiders visiting these places, whilst at the same time, showing the domestic side of some people who ‘snap’ and some who are able to move on. It held my interest throughout.

The Little House
From the beginning, I could see similarities to situations which I have known of, where people do so much for others, they eventually ‘own’ them. This, coupled with the fact that the mother could not untie the apron strings, made it predictable until the surprise ending. No, the situations I have known didn’t end that way – but it’s easy to understand how it could happen.

n

Any more

Will be back tomorrow.
Tess

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

I found this book a very good read and got through it quickly, I really liked the protrayal of Charlie and his Batman fasination. The ending I did think let the book down a litlte, but overall I enjoyed the book.

The Other House by Phillippa Gregory

Hmm, I have to say I saw the end coming. The Other House was a good read, I've read a couple of Phillippa's historical ones and haven't always found them easy going. This I read quickly, even getting it back to the library before it need a renewing, and if I could of I would have reached into the book and given Patrick a good shake - though I have to say I do know males like the character who would never get up to a baby during the night

Thank you GR for throwing me out of my post and not letteing me edit it.

Now where was I? I did find myself actually having a little giggle at the way Elizabeth met her end and I agree I am not sure she would have got away with it so easily in the real world.

Thanks Michelle

n

So much for all the warnings of the date to watch for!! Where is everyone?

Sorry, Ann, I've been trying to sort out a subsidence problem in my lounge!

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

I wasn’t sure whether Chris was a man or woman until I read the reviews in the front. He certainly seems to have thought himself into the female point of view. I liked the way the language changed as we swapped between Little Bee and Sarah’s stories and it definitely highlighted aspects of the life of refugees I had not thought about before.


The Little House, by Phillipa Gregory

I didn’t enjoy this as much as her historical novels; it seemed to lack substance although, as some others said, the ending was a real surprise.

Sorry, did not get round to reading this book.
Liz

Thanks Pam for that. Liz, did you have a problem getting both books or was there another reason you didn't read them?

Just getting to the end of my review and it was wooshed, so I will try again......

On The Other Hand certainly was food for thought. Both women were strong characters and very courageous. The situation was portrayed very realistically and I found it to be a couldn't put it down book.

The Little House had me feeling frustrated that Ruth could be so very innocent of her mother-in law being such a control freak.Helping and advising is one thing but actually furnishing and choosing colour schemes is going a bit too far, even if Elizabeth and Frederick had bought the cottage for them. Patrick was such a wimp I'd have dumped him, but then Ruth didn't have any famiy of her own and must have felt she needed him. Frederick was so under the thumb I feel he would agree to anything for a quiet life.

The Other Hand

Sorry, I didn't manage to get hold of this book in time.

The Little House

I read this a few years ago and then of course just recently. I thought it was clever how the author built up the disintegration of Ruth's self-confidence and wondered if Elizabeth really was manipulative and controlling or whether Ruth really was in need of such a great deal of support. Elizabeth I found creepy and scary and, having a mother-in-law who once thought she could make decisions for me because my own mother had died, I had a lot of sympathy for Ruth and thought she would have coped better if she had a circle of friends with babies rather than being isolated with disapproving in laws.

I agreed with those of you who thought there were some discrepancies in procedure - would a person really be sectioned these days as Ruth was, and surely the finale could never have been the perfect crime - just think what our TV detectives would have made of it! The ending, where Patrick and Frederick continue to be weak personalities in need of a strong woman to look after them, shows more than a little irony.

The Little House by Phillipa Gregory.

I had thpught that phillipa Gregory was a "light-weight" story teller.
How wrong I ws, without being a massive tome "The Little House" was I lot deeper than I had imagined.
However, I felt that i wanted to know more about Ruth's childhood with her aunt, after becoming an orphan. just what was it that made her so compliant in her personal life?
The picture drawn of Elizabeth, her mother-in-law, showed a seemingly caring, nuturing, well organised woman, without initially showing how she controlled people with soft words and a velvet glove.
I wanted to know more aboout "the one that got away", her daughter, who put the Atlantic Ocean between them. What were her views of her childhood and her mother.
I read with dread, Ruth's downward spiral into inadequecy - gently assisted by the 'caring' Elizabeth. Till eventually Ruth was packed off to a 'rest home' and discovered how to standup for herself - or in fact , be herself.
I felt so anxious that, on her discharge, she agreed to go home with Patrick, that I stopped reading - imagining another downward spiral---------

Taking up the book again (after reading "The Other Hand"), I thought at first that I was right to be anxious. I knew that there was to be a twist at the end (the blurb on the back of the book said so), but was completley taken by surprise!!!
Although I was pleased that Ruth had taken control of her own life (and then some!), I wonder if she became Elizabeth part two. Watch out future daughter-in-law, danger lurks.

I enjoyed the book, much more interesting than I had thought.

Review of "The other hand" to follow.

T

"The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave

An interesting and thought provoking book. I was swept up by the stories of Little Bee and sarah.
Any words I use about it would be inadequate. The story speaks for itself.

The sadness of the (escaped) Asylem Seekers see-through bags. The pathos of Little Bee telling her (dead) Nigerian friends, about Britain, using the "English" spoken in her region.
The horror of Little Bees experiences, caused by the oil company, and the need for profit, at whatever cost.

Sarah, trying to come to terms with her holiday in Nigeria and is aftermath.

The events leading to these two women getting together again with the far reaching effects of what had happened two years earlier.

The most thought provoking thing of all was that it felt true. I believed it as I read it.
This book should be on the book list for secondry schools.
It would also make a great Radio Play - as perhaps the story would be too graphic for a film, as it would get an 'X' certificate i.e under 18's would not be able to see it.

I throughly recommend this book to anyone that didn't manage to read it.


Tess

Thanks to those who have reviewed so far, and can I single out Tess's review of the other hand, you put it so well, thank you, I just could not get it into words.