- Hardcover: 341 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (5 Aug 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316648132
- ISBN-13: 978-0316648134
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,156,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The marriage of William and Grace Handle has become a matter of amicable habit; they have constructed their working lives so that they spend whole days hardly talking or seeing each other except at mealtimes. He is the lead violin of a distinguished string quartet; she a painstaking painter of flowers for a children's reference book. Easy Silenceis a book about the sudden craziness of mid-life crisis--William develops a hopeless crush on the new young viola player who has joined the quartet and conceives the idea that, were he to murder his wife, Bonnie would fall into his arms and they would make music together forever.
Angela Huth's real achievement in all this is to make clear how silly and how dangerous William's fantasies are, without him ever losing our sympathy:
"Bonnie had poured her soul into the music, sending messages too strong to be ignored. She had hugged him, told him she wanted them to play alone together again. So many glorious signs unsettled him ... Suddenly, William was able to contemplate the fact quite calmly; he would have to murder his wife."
William's condition would be comic were it not all so desperately sad and suspenseful. Grace too is spending too much time with a dangerous younger person--Lucien, a miserable young man who lives down the road with his mother, takes to dropping in for coffee rather too often and William's expensive cuff-links go missing. This is a novel of hard-pressed middle-aged life-- comedy with wolves howling round the door.--Roz Kaveney
Penny Parrick, THE TIMES
'Huth's controlled, elegant style has been compared to Jane Austen's, but her talent is entirely original'
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
William and Grace are the sort of blissfully married couple the less felicitous condemn as smug, but a serpent enters the garden of Eden. Two serpents, in fact: the weird young neighbour, Lucien, who latches on to Grace; and Bonnie, the new viola in William's string quartet. William becomes instantly infatuated with Bonnie and, unable to leave Grace since it would too painful for them both, decides he must murder her. But William is not the stuff murderers are made of. This unusual novel kept me guessing to the end. It's beautifully written and funny in a gentle, charming way.
Format:Paperback
Well written and with plausible, likeable characters, this book is a delight to read. The idea of William even contemplating murdering his dear wife is wonderful, as are the ways he sets about it! I especially loved the parts when William was driving - we've all come across drivers like him!
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A long-time marriage runs into a crisis...
21 Mar 2001
Format:Hardcover
First off, I admit I'm a fan of Angela Huth's books and I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. I wasn't dissappointed. This is a sometimes comic, sometimes poignant glimpse at the life of a couple, William and Grace, whose marriage has gotten a bit too routine. And then a lovely young musician enters the picture, a musician who happens to be joining William's music quartet,taking the place of a viola player who has resigned. William is entranced by her. Meanwhile Grace herself is not sitting alone, bereft and rejected. Although she's unaware of her husband's passions for another woman, Grace is also feeling drawn to another man. If you think this story is going to move along in predictable ways, think again - there's another horror around the corner, one this couple can't anticipate. I hope I've perked your interest in this book - I'd love to think another reader has discovered the joys of this author's writing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing
26 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have loved the other Angela Huth's novels, Wives of the Fisherman, and Land Girls, and was disappointed with the gravity of this one. Am a compulsive "finisher," but had to prod myself along and found it wanting in content. She always writes beautifully about relationships but this, for me, just wasn't a very engaging story. Sorry.
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