As the book begins we realise that the narrator is a very recent widow, having just found her husband dead, and we are hearing her thoughts and reflections upon their marriage and life together. There are no actual chapters, just fairly short paragraphs and page breaks. To begin with, I found this format really interesting; with each paragraph we jump with the narrator to another memory or back to the present. Its not always clear straight away if the current memory is before or after the last, but although at first confusing I felt that it reflected someones mind when they are grieving well with thoughts all over the place, jumping from one memory to the next, going through various emotions, not always making sense etc. However, towards the end of the book I felt that this wasn't working for me anymore as I didn't feel like I had 'got to know' any of the characters very well and despite getting an overview of their many tears together, I felt as though I didn't really know anything about them and that there wasn't really much plot.
I've been left in two minds about this novel. I did find it fairly enjoyable to read and whilst I won't be going out of my way to recommend this to people, I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it either. If you have this book then give it a go, I feel that the author does manage to reflect a grieving mind very well - but if you like a 'plot heavy' book with lots going on then you might find this is not for you.
(Copy of review for Amazon Vine)
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