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Imserba Webstore - Her Fearful Symmetry (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)
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List Price: $34.95
Our Price: $34.08
Your Save: $ 0.87 ( 2% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781410422446
Feature: ISBN13: 9781410422446
Format: Large Print
ISBN: 1410422445
Label: Thorndike Press
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 637
Publication Date: 2009-10-06
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Studio: Thorndike Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Audrey Niffenegger's spectacularly compelling second novel opens with a letter that alters the fate of every character. Julia and Valentina Poole are semi-normal American twenty-year-olds with seemingly little interest in college or finding jobs. Their attachment to one another is intense. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. From a London solicitor, the letter informs Valentina and Julia that their English aunt Elspeth Noblin, whom they never knew, has died of cancer, and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions to this inheritance: that they live in it for a year before they sell it; and that their parents may not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the estranged Elspeth and Edie, their mother. The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders the vast and ornate Highgate Cemetery. Julia and Valentina come to know the residents of their building. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive compulsive disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including -- perhaps -- their aunt. Author of one of the most beloved first novels in recent years, Niffenegger returns with an unnerving, unforgettable and enchanting ghost story, a novel about love and identity, secrets and sisterhood, and the tenacity of life -- even after death.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Suffered from authorial control, but still loved it
Comment: As an English major and librarian, I've read a few books. This ranks as being one of the most enjoyable novels I've read. Contrary to what many say, I didn't find it to be slow, but rather atmospheric. Niffenegger built the characters to a point where I really cared about them. My main complaint was that Niffenegger worked so hard to make the characters believable, and then abandoned believability for plot near the end of the novel. I liked the plot twists and read the last third of the book in an evening, but felt at times that the author was forcing the characters to do things for the sake of getting them from point A to B. It's almost as if she had an ending, complete with plot twists, in mind, and wouldn't let the characters have any say in what would happen next. She forces Robert to do things unlike his character, and with a few deft sentences, turns Elspeth into a monster.
This said, the book is haunting. Unlike many of the reviewers, I never read Time Traveler's Wife, but will probably do so now. I think second novels are often called sophomoric because the first novel developed a following, and then the novelist, for the sake of a challenge, took a new direction that wasn't compliant with the first book's readership. Her Fearful Symmetry is an original take on the ghost story, borrowing Victorian tropes along the way. I would like to see Niffenneger prosper for what is a thoroughly entertaining and genuinely imaginative novel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still not sure what I think
Comment: Julia and Valentina are mirror twins; Julia wants them to stay together forever and Valentina wants to go back to college. They are twenty years old and living at home when they discover an Aunt Elspeth that they never knew has died and left them her London home.Elspeth was the twin of their mother Edie. But there are stipulations; they must live in the apartment for one year before they can sell it. Also, their parents are forbidden to enter the apartment. Elspeth and Edie had been estranged for twenty years.
Julia is eager to go, Valentina less so, but she follows her more dominating twin to London. Elspeth's apartment house is next to the famed Highgate Cemetery, where Robert, Elspeth's lover works while writing a thesis on the cemetery and it's residents.
Robert lives in an apartment below the girls and avoids seeing these girls that look so much like his beloved Elspeth. Martin lives upstairs, he has OCD and can't leave his apartment, despite the fact that his wife has left him, unable to deal with his illness.
Meanwhile, Elspeth discovers that she has not moved on to a better place. Her ghostly self is trapped in the apartment.
my review:
I only just recently read and adored Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, at the time that mixed reviews for Her Fearful Symmetry were coming out. So I didn't have any particular expectations for this second novel, which is good because even though I have read it, I'm not certain what I think of it.
The relationship between Julia and Valentina is abnormally close and yet strained. Julia seems to like to frighten her more timid sister, yet the idea of being separated from her is very upsetting. And Valentina opts for a very bizarre way to escape from her sister. But yet the story is intriguing at various parts. I'm not certain of the purpose of Martin, the OCD neighbor, but he is one of the more interesting characters in the book and the relationship between him and his wife, Marjike is touching, though she has moved to Amsterdam to start her life anew.
There is a plot twist with the twins, Edie and Elspeth which was silly and pointless to me. But Elspeth's ghost character is quite interesting. The ending was able to be predicted earlier than it should have but still unusual. All in all I'm glad I read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ghostly Love Story
Comment: I think I enjoyed this offering from the author even more than The Time Traveler's Wife! Part ghost story, part love story, part sibling rivalry. The characters were very real to me and very believable. Mirror image twins inherit their dead aunt's (and their mother's identical twin) apartment in London, situated next door to Highgate Cemetery. Their mother and aunt haven't spoken in years, and no one is sure why. The apartment is haunted by the dead aunt, and with that comes many surprises. A delicious read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed for the most part
Comment: After an interview about this book on the Diane Rehm show, I really wanted to read this. I had not read the Time Travelers Wife.
I really had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 stars. I loved most of the book. It is so well written, the characters really draw you in. I couldn't put it down. Then in part three it starts to take a strange turn. Yes there is a supernatural aspect, but what suddenly comes up is not expected and feels forced. Almost like the story came so far, and then she couldn't figure out what direction to go to end it. Even when the the secret between the two adult twins is revealed it seems ridiculous scenario.
I found this review difficult to write because I really enjoyed the bulk of the book. It is just the last several chapters that were a dissapointment. I have read many books where the ending didn't conclude as I hoped it would, but it was still a good ending and I felt fufilled reading it. This was a book, where I finished and felt let down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well, I loved it . . .
Comment: and I HATED the "Time Traveler's Wife." couldn't force myself to finish it. However, in this novel, I found the characters of Valentina and her sister to be incredibly engaging, and though I"m not usually a fan of ghost stories of any sort, I found the idea of Elspeth haunting the LOndon apartment where she had lived, able to be experienced only by the twin girls and Robert, her old lover, to be intriguing and well-done. I loved the way the author created such a wonderful ambience, and the rivalry between the young sisters as well as between their older mom and aunt (who are also twins) was extremely well-done. However, the 'big secret' which was revealed at the end to me was rather predictable -- honestly, I had already figured it out. However, the other plot twist just made me sad. It was just such a beautiful book that I guess I didn't want it to have a sad ending. I think Audrey Niffenegger is a beautiful writer and her story of the overly enmeshed, love-hate relationship between the twin sisters was wonderfully realistic and well-rendered. I've been recommending this book to all my friends.
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