Books
by Joanna Trollope
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Brother and Sister |
The theme of adoption and the crusade to find one's 'birth' parents is a topic of burning interest today and this novel lays bare all the anguish and insecurity adoptees can feel however much love and protection their adoptive parents give them, depicting with fairness and penetration the dangerous call of the unknown despite the real possibility of terrible upheavals for all concerned. Most worthwhile.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Daughters-in-Law |
This is the most recent novel in Trollope's whole series of sympathetic but clinical analyses of marriage. She now addresses the stresses and strains within a family when the three sons marry. Their mother Rachel loves being the central pivot but her control begins to slip away as her daughters-in-law bring with them different, sometimes alien elements - subtle rifts occur and adjustments are necessary - a situation familiar to almost every family. Interesting and thought-provoking.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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Daughters-in-Law |
If you have, or perhaps had, a difficult mother-in-law, this is an interesting read and more profound than it seems at first. Basically it raises the obvious question: why is it so difficult for so many newly married women to get along with their mothers-in-law? Because if you have fallen in love with her son, why do you find his mother so bad?
(Laurence Martin Euler - bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Marrying the Mistress |
Like all Trollope's books, this is a deceptively easy read. Judge Guy Stockdale at 62 decides to leave his wife and marry the young woman who has been his mistress for the last seven years. All the characters and family situations are spot on, my only reservation is with the rather unsympathetic portrayal of Laura, his wife.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 8 April 2001) |
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Second Honeymoon |
The Sunday Times calls Joanna Trollope 'the queen of the domestic dilemma', but this novel does not seem to be as clear cut in its conception as her others . . . the characters of course do not know where they are going, but one feels that Trollope herself has not solved the problems and the solutions are too fortuitous . . . but, as always, a diverting and in some parts an illuminating read.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 44 February 2008) |
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The Girl from the South |
Trollope's newest book with her subtle and sophisticated dissection of relationships between couples and in families, is about the multiplicity of choices facing young adults in work as in love; the need - or lack of need - to make commitments; the difficulty of trust and choice in today's demanding, endlessly changing world. The contrast between England and the States between the generations is intriguing, but I feel sharp edges are a little blunter than usual.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 16 December 2002) |
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The Other Family |
For 23 years Crissie lived with the successful musician Richie, they had 3 daughters, a lovely house and a lively life, but he never married her. For many years he had no contact with his legal wife, whom he never divorced, or his son. At his death, these branches come together, with enormous adjustments and consequences for all. Trollope treats bereavement and rejection with her usual attention to the subtleties and nuances of human, mostly feminine, emotions.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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