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Rumer Godden : A Storyteller's Life

Rumer Godden : A Storyteller's Life

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The life of the storyteller
Review: Having enjoyed the works of Rumer Godden all my life I also enjoyed this telling of the story of her life, which in many ways is even more interesting than the novels she wrote. The only reason that I could not give this book four stars was because I felt that the biography did not cover the last half of her life as well and as completely as it did the first half. I recommend this book not only to those individuals who are as taken with Rumer's fiction as I am, but also for those individuals who seek to become writers, and those who enjoy biography.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So-so, ho-hum biography...
Review: I had never read anything (that I can remember) by Rumer Godden, and this book does not make that an imperative, unlike other biographies, which sent me racing to the book store to pick up the subject's works. However, I do want to see the Renoir adaptation of "The River."

I found this a bit boring. Something about the slight, anecdotal writing. It just didn't pack a wallop for me. I read to the end - it wasn't pure Hell anything - but I didn't look forward to returning to it.

The rather wan writing style may simply reflect the rather wan woman who was, according to Chisholm's interpretation, stuffy and bound by a sort of suburban conventionality. And yet, one wonders what someone else might have made of a life lived in such exotic places...

One example of the disappointing writing of the book is the depiction of the relationship between Rumer and the older sister she worshiped. The biographer seems to have just gotten her toes wet before she pulls back. This sister was obviously jealous of Rumer and hated to relinquish her queenly role in the family to the daughter who waas obviously the better - at least more acclaimed - writer. But the biographer seems to skirt this - she alludes to it, but never goes deeply into it, as if, like her subject, she is wrinkling up her nose at anything "distasteful."


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