Bookworm in the City

No. 5 – A book with a person’s name in the title

Lily : A tale of revenge / Rose Tremain

I spotted this book over a year ago in a bookshop and wasn’t sure about it then, and gave monetary priority to other titles. Then recently I stumbled upon it yet again and this time with a discount, so I thought to go for it after all as the picture was still on my phone (does anybody else take pictures of books they can’t afford?). As it turned out I should have listened to my book instincts and left it, no matter how much off it was.

The cover is nice enough. The title and description on the back, intriguing enough. Yet reading it, left me feeling confused and disappointed: I didn’t understand what this book was meant to be. Murder mystery? Victorian guilt trip? A story of unrequited love? The title calls it “a tale of revenge”, but revenge indicates a certain ruthlessness, a desire, that I found lacking. This was more about the guilt that follows the act of revenge, rather than the emotions that drove to it. And yet it was all very melodramatic. Like I said, I feel confused.

Lily has committed a murder. That much is clear even before you start the book.
The story is told in a now and then, telling of Lily’s childhood and how she came to be where she is now. The chapters are roughly on and off, but it’s not indicated with a timing (the chapters have titles instead), and sometimes it takes a few sentences to realize where the story is in the timeline, especially in the beginning when new characters get introduced in both the past and the present. It doesn’t read easy and although I don’t mind using my brain, but it’s annoying when you have to think about these things instead of the story itself.

And the story just wasn’t really pulling me in at any point. I thought the build-up was too long, too slow, without enough surprise or tension for the big moment. By the time the murder happened, I was just glad that it happened. There was so much guilt about it, so much internal struggle from page one onwards that the event didn’t even have that much of an impact. Then a confession happens much later, odd in both timing and setting.
Even stranger was the ending, which I didn’t get, or maybe by then I was too annoyed by the melodramatics.
Clearly, this book and I turned out to be a bad match.
I’m wishing happy readings to others (I’m donating my book to a second-hand shop), but this book wasn’t for me.