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Book Description
Like her acclaimed Have the Men Had Enough? Forster's latest novel is a characteristically compelling, clear-eyed, humane and heartbreaking novel about a taboo subject - and about what it feels like to be a survivor...
Product Description
What do Mrs H., Rachel, Edwina, Ida, Sarah, Dot, Chrissie have in common? They're all women, but they're fat, thin, old, young, professional, incompetent - and appear as diverse as human nature can be. But they are all survivors. This compelling novel follows the ripples that go out into ordinary lives, women's lives in particular, which have been scarred and changed by a shared experience, all connected by the same hospital clinic in a small Northern town. This is a novel about what it means to live in the shadow of disease and with its scars, whether mental and physical, looking back over one's shoulder while trying to go forward. You can trip up or, if you're careful, you might make it....
At its heart is a strong, difficult but finally vulnerable, old woman. Mrs H. is generous and helpful to a (sometimes comical) fault, and lives alone with a secret that she tells no one but that finally explains everything. Her niece is a young doctor who can't take the strain, and who wants something different from life. Alongside them are the other walking wounded, getting on with their lives: Ida, once beautiful and now hiding her scars under layers of fat; tiny Dot who is stronger than she seems; Edwina, a mother who lives vicariously through others, even her wild daughter, Rachel, who finds almost too late what it's like to soar above the crowd; and not to mention the men in their lives. From the marvellous ambivalence of the title question, it leaves us with a whole lot more to consider about life and its infinite variety.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a previous Margaret Forster fan I picked up this book with enthusiasm, but as a health care worker I found it disturbing and depressing. Perhaps this was the intention and it certainly kept me turning the pages but ultimately this book describes women's lives being devastated by cancer, surrounded by dysfunctional relationships and fear, anger and loneliness.
Whilst a diagnosis of cancer is never anything but devastating, many real people who survive cancer or live with the diagnosis of cancer find enormous strength within themselves and draw enormous support from relationships that become stronger because of discussing the things in life that really matter. I kept hoping that one of Forster's characters would find this strength and reach out to the others, but all her characters were isolated and lonely. This was a book about lives being destroyed by cancer rather than lives lived to the full despite cancer.
I would like to know what breast cancer survivors think of this book but I would feel too nervous lending it to them. Maybe it would make them feel they were not doing too badly in the same way that Rachel Cusk's ' A life's work" made me feel I wasn't such a bad mother after all! But I think it would just make them feel depressed.
There is no doubt however that Forster writes extremely perceptively about human emotions and experiences. The book has made me think differently about a human situation and this is always her great strength.
Whilst a diagnosis of cancer is never anything but devastating, many real people who survive cancer or live with the diagnosis of cancer find enormous strength within themselves and draw enormous support from relationships that become stronger because of discussing the things in life that really matter. I kept hoping that one of Forster's characters would find this strength and reach out to the others, but all her characters were isolated and lonely. This was a book about lives being destroyed by cancer rather than lives lived to the full despite cancer.
I would like to know what breast cancer survivors think of this book but I would feel too nervous lending it to them. Maybe it would make them feel they were not doing too badly in the same way that Rachel Cusk's ' A life's work" made me feel I wasn't such a bad mother after all! But I think it would just make them feel depressed.
There is no doubt however that Forster writes extremely perceptively about human emotions and experiences. The book has made me think differently about a human situation and this is always her great strength.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was looking forward to reading this book after reading an online extract. Margaret Forster is one of my favourite authors, although I am still recovering from the discovery that "Diary of an Ordinary Woman" is in fact totally fictional. I am therefore sorry to say that this book was a real disappointment. There are too many characters who remain shadowy because they are only described in terms of their reaction to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and the introduction of an emotionally insecure vicar halfway through is just a distraction. By the end there is a tangle of loose ends, and while that may reflect most people's lives it does not make for a satisfying read. The book didn't even give any real insight into living in the shadow of breast cancer.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I personally couldn't put this book down. It's true that nothing much really happens in it, and it is quite bleak in its portrayal of cancer. But to me it is a fascinating book. The characters within it are compelling, and it made me think twice about how I perceive people, because it reveals the passions and fears beneath the surface, driving the characters actions. I agree I didn't much care for the vicar and felt he added little to the book.
Overall, this was my first Margaret Forster, and on the strength of it, I have spent a fortune buying lots of her other works. I think this says alot.
Overall, this was my first Margaret Forster, and on the strength of it, I have spent a fortune buying lots of her other works. I think this says alot.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Is there anything you want
I've like some of Margaret Forster's books. But I have tried this one twice now. And each time I find it drones on and on. And there seems to be a lack of paragraphs. Read more
Published 1 month ago by JS
Lives in a small Northern town
A novel of great subtlety, with many ordinary, yet interesting, characters. Mrs Hibbert is a fascinating busy-body, do-gooder, whose past holds surprising secrets. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lewis Duckworth
A beautiful novel
I was not looking forward to reading this book after reading the two quite bad Amazon reviews for it (at time of writing), also the subject matter seemed a bit depressing, but I... Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2009 by Lukal8
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