Rating: 
Summary: Literature of Consolation
Review: This novel makes a fetish of the "boiling hot bath" and cool glass of Scotch, and the book affects the reader in much the same way as the aforementioned. Someone dear to me gave me the novel, and I dreaded reading what was so obviously (judging from the cover) not "literary." And I almost set the book aside permanently on encountering the bit about the fashion magazine editor in Ibiza. Fortunately I ploughed on, and I'm glad I did, because the novel has a vital force to it, and I can see that readers would return to it for solace. [I couldn't help comparing it to "Mrs. Dalloway"; it is better but less brilliant. Penelope has ten times the life force of Virginia Woolf's bloodless heroine, and the Septimus-type character doesn't jump from a window, he fathers a child. Which is not to say that "The Shellseekers" is saccharine; it's anguished, yet the heroine artfully lives on.] There is much that is emotionally brilliant in the novel, particularly regarding the possibility of giving birth to people who are not one's spiritual or temperamental progeny (could there be a greater tragedy?). I think of the novel as part of a fascinating sub-genre I'd call "the literature of consolation", books one turns to when blue or spiritually tired (Colette's "Flowers and Fruit" comes to mind) and in need of a bit of light and color and warmth. And I think the author is aware of that, as she's encoded such prototypes as "Elizabeth and her German Garden" in the text.
Rating:
Summary: Great for setting...
Review: To start off, this book is a masterpiece. I loved most of the characters and their trials and tribulations made me smile. But I have to say that it was extremely slow at times and also some of the descriptions were unnecessary. I thought that reading about everything the Keelings did every day for 60 years could be a little tiring. 300 pages must have described their life alone! And considering this books considerable size, I'm sure it could have been much better. Also, the story of the painting the Shell Seekers seemed only secondary, the book seemed to travel only around the Keelings- not that they were not interesting in their own right.The plot also seemed weak and disorderly at times. it doesn't mean I did not like the book. I just think it could have focused more on the story instead of just the house. I might read September, but I will wait a little while before reading anymore of Rosamunde Pilcher. This book will still come recommended by me to my friends. It's worth enjoying!
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