The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter

Book Details

Paperback

Pages: 438

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Published: 2010

Language: English

ISBN: 978 0 7322 9080 1

Book Review

This is one of those books where the world seems to be conspiring to make sure that you read it. I first heard about the book when I read a review of it on someones blog. They really loved it, and I thought it sounded really interesting. A debut novel by an Australian author, contemporary, utilising world events as part of the plot - sounded really good. Then I added it to my wish list but didn't rush out to buy it (I don't generally buy new books). Then I was mucking around on the Internet one day and discovered that a local bookshop runs a monthly book club, and the next book they were looking at was The Legacy. A local book club looking at a book that I wanted to read - I couldn't pass it up. So, I purchased the book and here I am writing the review.

The back cover:

What has happened to Ingrid? Beautiful Ingrid inherits a fortune and leave Australia, and her friends, and Ralph who loves her, to marry Gil Grey and set up home amid the New York art world. There she becomes the stepmother to Gil's teenage artist daughter Fleur, a former child prodigy, and studies ancient curse scrolls at Columbia University. But at 9am on September 11 2001 she has an appointment downtown. And is never seen again. Or is she? Searching for clues about Ingrid's life a year later, her friend Julia uncovers only further layers of mystery and deception.

I wish I could say that the world conspired to bring me an amazing book, but I can't. Although there were some things that I liked about this book, there were so many things that I didn't. Having said that, after having been to the book club and discussing this book with other readers and the author herself, I feel a lot better about the book than I did before hand. I appreciated the book a lot more knowing what the authors intention was, even if I don't think it was executed very well.

Let me start with the things that I didn't like first. I know this is a horrible thing to say, and I totally accept when I say this that I have no writing ability whatsoever. Here goes... the writing was pretty terrible. It just wasn't very good. At the book club, the author said that she was trying to imitate a write style called 'hard boiled'. She said its a type of crime writing. This style if supposed to be very staccato and is used to build tension. Having heard her say that, I understand the theory behind the style of writing, but I still don't think it was executed very well.

It was full of clunky sentences like: "Fleur knocked on my door and I must have been asleep because it seemed to wake me". What??? Does this sentence really irritate anyone other than me? When chapters came to an end there was often a scene that was clearly written to build suspense, but just seemed completely out of place. For example, after Julia has been looking at handwriting sentences with one of the characters who becomes involved in the story, there is a description of Julie getting off the train and walking home, very detailed and clearly supposed to have some purpose - but what? I couldn't figure it out. And so many chapters finished like that.

Another complaint was the way in which the characters were formed - it felt a lot like you barely got to know any of them, and I am relieved that it seemed like a lot of other people at the book club felt similarly. Ingrid is a fairly shadowy character, but I don't mind that all. She is supposed to be. That is part of the mystery. I would, however, have liked to get to know the other characters a little more, especially Julia and Ralph. The novel didn't take the reader (me at least) very deep into the characters at all, and that is really important to my enjoyment of the book. It meant that I didn't really care about the characters, I felt like I was skimming through the book because I wasn't getting below the surface of anyone.

There was also this sense of mystery that was created around certain characters that I thought had something to do with the plot (I am not going to tell you which characters I am talking about in case you read the book). I kept waiting to find out the explanation for their behaviour, but at the end my expectations were not fulfilled - there was no explanation provided. I asked the author about this at the book club, and her explanation was essentially that she was creating mystery around these two characters for no other purpose than to create a feeling of suspense in general. She did go a little deeper into an explanation, but I have to admit that I was disappointed - you can't create suspense around characters just for the sake of it - there has to be some purpose. I felt jipped.

The author gave a few explanations for things that happened in the book that I didn't quite accept. The main one that I am the most disappointed in is around the ending of the book, which I can't really talk about because it would totally spoil the end of the book.

The book is based on The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, which I didn't actually realise until after I had read the book. Having been to the book club listened to the author discuss her motivation behind basing a book upon a classic and how she did it, I appreciated the book a little more than I had before hand. I didn't like that some of the characters had the same name as the characters in James' novel and some didn't, but I still think that it some ways it was a clever way to rewrite a classic.

I am disappointed in the ending to The Legacy as well. The author shared that she had a different, more ambiguous ending that she discarded. I am glad she discarded something more ambiguous than the ending that she actually used. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say much else about the end, except that it just didn't cut it for me.

Ah, there are so many things that I could talk about but I am sick of going on about the negatives. The best thing about this book is that it entirely sucks you in from about the half way mark. I just wanted to keep reading and keep reading and keep reading. I couldn't put it down. Tranter does well at creating that tension. It's just a shame that for me it felt like it lead no where.

If you have read this book - I would love to know what you think. Better yet, if you have reviewed it, please leave a link to your review for me to read.

Summary

What kind of read is it?

A tense read.

Do I recommend this book?

Not really to be honest. It was good, but for me the negatives far outweighed the positives.

Do I recommend that you buy this book?

Absolutely not.

Star Rating

4 / 8

Alright, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Details

Ebook
Project Gutenberg

Book Review


I can’t really remember what made me started reading Treasure Island. I vaguely remember just having a flick through the various ebook options on the application I use (Stanza) and seeing this one and deciding to read it.

The narrator, Jim Hawkins, is a young boy who lives in a Village Inn run by his parents. His life becomes adventuresome when an old Pirate, Billy Bones, comes to lodge with them. Through very odd circumstances, Billy Bones suffers a stroke after receiving the Black Spot, and Jim Hawkins and his mother come into possession of a treasure map and are hotly pursued by Pirates until the Pirates are scared off by the coming of some townspeople. Jim Hawkins gives the map to Squire Trelawney and Dr Livesy, and they all then plan a big trip to Treasure Island in search of the treasure.

A ship is bought and Trelawney hires Captain Smollett and Long John Silver as cook. Long John then hires the rest of the crew. Despite some early signs that should have lead to suspicion, the ship sets sail for the Island. Unfortunately, Jim uncovers a plot to mutiny after the treasure is bought onto the ship.

The rest of the story details how the crew split into two, and end up stranded on Treasure Island fighting for life and treasure.

I really wish that I had enjoyed Treasure Island more than I did. I think what put me off was mostly the language that was used. Sometimes it’s difficult to get through to the story when the language is so old fashioned and dense, and this was one of those books for me. The language took something away from the adventure from me. I spent too much time focusing on what I was reading, which prevented me from really getting into it.

Something I did find interesting was this idea of honesty and loyalty that was so prominent throughout the story. At one stage Jim Hawkins is held captive by the enemy pirates and he gives his word to Silver that he will not attempt to escape. Then, despite being given the perfect opportunity to escape, he does not because he has given his word not to. This type of loyalty is totally foreign to me – I find it difficult to comprehend why someone would not escape captivity other than because they promised their captor not to? What do you owe your captor? Why would your word mean more to you than the opportunity to take flight when faced with death? Something similar that puzzled me was this – why did Jim seem so set in keeping his word to Silver when he happily broke his word to his own friends by abandoning them in the first place?

There is more to Treasure Island that what I have discussed here, but I think that this is the kind of book that you have to read yourself to know what you will get out of it.


Summary

What kind of read is it?
A challenging read, but a shorter one than you might expect.

Do I recommend it?
Not really to be honest.

Do I recommend that you buy it?
No, just get it from the library or a friend, unless you are a collector of classics.

Star Rating

Alright, but I wouldn't recommend it.

4/8

Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey by Farley Mowat

I bought this for $1.00 at a book stall on Church Street Mall in Parramatta one morning before work. I thought that it might be interesting because I had heard of Dian Fossey and remember watching Gorillas in the Mist as a child (although I can't remember the movie itself).

This book is a biography of Dian Fossey, from her childhood until her gruesome murder at Karisoke Research Centre in the Virunga mountains in Rwanda. The author has had access to all of Dian Fossey's papers, including her personal diary, and much of the story of Dian's life is told through extracts from her personal diary and letters that she has both written and received. This was interesting, because it gave me as the reader an insight into what Dian actually felt about the occurrences that the author of the biography was explaining.

It was a good read, and I feel like I have learnt a lot about the mountain gorilla's of Rwanda, and on a bigger scale, the lengths some people will go to to protect what needs protecting. Dian Fossey was a fierce woman who was not afraid of using violence and other scare tactics to protect her mountain gorillas from poachers and tourism. I am glad that there are people like Dian Fossey out there, people with enough passion and courage to act as the protectors of those that cannot protect themselves.

I'm glad I read the book, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to be honest. To truly enjoy the book I think you would need to have a genuine interest in Dian Fossey or mountain gorilla's. It definitely wasn't attention grabbing.

Star Rating

4 / 8

Alright, but I wouldn't recommend it.