Categories: books
Date: 28 February 2010 22:35:10
Ok, so I admit it I needed some light relief today. I had spent a weekend in Birmingham "exploring" and was worn out by this afternoon when I had a couple of hours to kill before getting the train. Thus, when I discovered that the half price sticker on the front plus what I had on my points card meant I could get the new Joanna Trollope for under £6, hardback I was sorted.
The Other Family made an interesting, but easy read....just what I needed. It is weaker in some ways than other Trollope books and even sloppy in places. On one level it is Trollope doing a Jane Austen for the 21st century. By this I mean it comments on the financial disadvantage second families, (and others), face if co-habitation has been involved rather than marriage due to the rules around inheritance tax. It also looks at the relationship between "first" and "second" families in the face of death. Thus it reads more like a political broadcast than a novel at times.
Secondly, in relation to one daughter studying A Levels the detail is unbelieveable and as I say getting sloppy. The characters father, who dies, wants the kid to go to uni and she is v. bright (a A/B student is implied) yet she has no UCAS application in already...don't think so. The plot would have been strengthened if a UCAS application had been in but she then wanted to defer / change.
The book contains some detail of the North East and this is interesting. Although again at times it reads like a set of research notes rather than her usual quality novel.
All that said I did enjoy reading it and it's simplicity in places did mean it wasn't so challenging as some of her books which involve greater involvement to follow the plot and engage with the characters. As I say this afternoon that was just what I needed and it is still a book I would recommend as a bit of enjoyable easy reading.