The Little Red Chairs (Audible Audio Edition) Edna O'Brien Juliet Stevenson Whole Story Audiobooks Books
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When a wanted war criminal masquerading as a healer settles in a small west coast Irish village, the community are in thrall. One woman, Fidelma McBride, falls under his spell, and in this searing novel Edna O'Brien charts the consequence of that fatal attraction.
This is a story about love, the artifice of evil and the terrible necessity of accountability in our shattered, damaged world.
The Little Red Chairs (Audible Audio Edition) Edna O'Brien Juliet Stevenson Whole Story Audiobooks Books
I did not enjoy this novel as much as I'd hoped. I loved "House of Splendid Isolation," an earlier O-Brien novel with a terrorist lead character. This novel seemed more thought than felt, it seemed to me. I enjoyed the descriptions of the people and life in Cloonoila that appeared early in the novel, but did not find many of the characters believable or compelling. I hesitate to say this, because I often enjoy and admire O'Brien's work, but I found many of the plot points contrived. The character of Vlad is based very closely on the character and life of Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb politician, poet, psychologist, and murderer.I can certainly understand why O'Brien would want to write about Karadzic -- he's quite a puzzle. And perhaps O'Brien really does get his character right -- empty, shallow, and self-ish. I guess he'd have to be those things to do what he did do. And she's certainly right that the hair would have attracted a lot of women. But the character is a man with a hollow center and its hard to be interested in any of the scenes he's in because of that. And readers -- BIG SPOILER ALERT -- I found the rape scene taken graphically straight out of New Delhi circa 2012 -- remember the bus and how the young woman was raped? I really, really wish that O'Brien had not borrowed that type of rape for the main female character in this novel. To me it kind of cheapened what happen to the young Indian woman in 2012 and that was awful and brutal indeed. The whole scene leading up to it and after seemed contrived to me.
ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT! I also find the scene wherein Jack dies as soon as Fidelma returns not quite believable.
There was one scene I really did like, apart from the slow, leisurely introduction to Cloonoila and that was the one in which Sister Bonaventure goes to visit Vlad the healer.
Overall, though, I didn't enjoy or get much out of this novel. This was not, to me, O'Brien at her best. Clearly many readers differ, however, and really, I am glad. If you like O'Brien's work and/or the story interests you, give it a try and see for yourself.
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The Little Red Chairs (Audible Audio Edition) Edna O'Brien Juliet Stevenson Whole Story Audiobooks Books Reviews
Is it fiction or is it describing actual events? I read this book as a Book Club selection and was excited to read anything new by Edna O'Brien. Boy was I disappointed. I was present for a full day of testimony at The Hague for hearings against the monster, Milosevic. I think O'Brien had a good story in mind, but the writing was so uneven and the themes so mangled, that I wondered if she has simply lost her touch. The first quarter of the novel is strangely intriguing and keeps your interest as the main character development unfolds. But her insatiable need to integrate the theme of refugees and immigrants into the storyline, completely muddles the story. Her femme fatale is sympathetic in her desire for a child and her need for affection and self recognition, but the story unravels. Vlad, the stranger in town becomes completely unbelievable and a google search to fact check, caused my interest to flag. I kept reading to read The Hague descriptions. I can still see the man accused of the mass murdering thousands of muslims deny his participation in the atrocities. This part, Ms O'Brien summarizes perfectly. But then, our heroine, once again loses herself and I too was lost. Disappointing writing for an important world topic. Read "The Cellist of Sarajevo" instead. Much more satisfying.
A gorgeous book to remind us of how many wonderful stories have been stored in Ms.O'Brien's brain,and how lucky we are so many of them have been let out to air.
The pleasures of this novel begin instantly with its style and perceptions. Whether she is writing of the sea or the countryside, the skies,birds, flowers, or tensions in the air between people of faith and those without, Ms. O'Brien at an advanced age writes as though she were still in her thirties unblinkingly at horrors, with gratitude for beauty.
The story centers on the disappointments and desires of an Irish woman, Fidelma, who yearns for motherhood, loves her husband mostly despite understanding him too well, and is not past believing in romance and sex. Alas for her, and her husband, this yearning becomes centered on a mystery visitor to their small town, a man from the Balkans who may or may not be a war criminal. Tall, dour, magnetic, with talents that seem to come directly from fairy tales, he is perceived as both spiritual and priapic. His aura entices not only Fidelma but most of the women in the village. It is only,we hope, Fidelma who cedes to the moment and displays herself for his pleasure.
The two begin an abortive affair in which he makes and satisfies the demands she has barely enough bravery to imagine. It is enough for her and in fact she does become pregnant.
But when this Serbian shaman is identified, all hell breaks loose. Fidelma is punished by other Slavs on the trail of justice, as well as by her fellow villagers. These are graphic scenes that leave us breathless with terror and pain.
Later, hospitalized and penitent, Fidelma escapes to England. We follow her travails there as she learns again to depend on herself alone, in the course of which rehabilitation we meet her new landlords and her newer colleagues at menial work.
Still driven by desire, colored now completely by shame and hatred, Fidelma manages to get to the Hague for the trial of her other-worldly abuser. Accepting her successive crashes along the roadside of love, Fidelma eventually returns to Ireland only to reunite with her husband who is, in no small part because of her, waiting only for a final meeting to die.
The story is multi-cultural, multi-colored, a weave of the tenderest sort but with incredible strength in its fiber. The ending of the novel is astonishingly beautiful.
Highly recommended.
John Neufeld, author of
EDGAR ALLAN and LISA,BRIGHT AND DARK (both d)
I did not enjoy this novel as much as I'd hoped. I loved "House of Splendid Isolation," an earlier O-Brien novel with a terrorist lead character. This novel seemed more thought than felt, it seemed to me. I enjoyed the descriptions of the people and life in Cloonoila that appeared early in the novel, but did not find many of the characters believable or compelling. I hesitate to say this, because I often enjoy and admire O'Brien's work, but I found many of the plot points contrived. The character of Vlad is based very closely on the character and life of Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb politician, poet, psychologist, and murderer.
I can certainly understand why O'Brien would want to write about Karadzic -- he's quite a puzzle. And perhaps O'Brien really does get his character right -- empty, shallow, and self-ish. I guess he'd have to be those things to do what he did do. And she's certainly right that the hair would have attracted a lot of women. But the character is a man with a hollow center and its hard to be interested in any of the scenes he's in because of that. And readers -- BIG SPOILER ALERT -- I found the rape scene taken graphically straight out of New Delhi circa 2012 -- remember the bus and how the young woman was raped? I really, really wish that O'Brien had not borrowed that type of rape for the main female character in this novel. To me it kind of cheapened what happen to the young Indian woman in 2012 and that was awful and brutal indeed. The whole scene leading up to it and after seemed contrived to me.
ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT! I also find the scene wherein Jack dies as soon as Fidelma returns not quite believable.
There was one scene I really did like, apart from the slow, leisurely introduction to Cloonoila and that was the one in which Sister Bonaventure goes to visit Vlad the healer.
Overall, though, I didn't enjoy or get much out of this novel. This was not, to me, O'Brien at her best. Clearly many readers differ, however, and really, I am glad. If you like O'Brien's work and/or the story interests you, give it a try and see for yourself.
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