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Tussen Twee Zussen (2012)

by Jane Fallon(Favorite Author)

3.24 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

De Kern

review 1: Awful. One dimensional characters that just annoyed me. Gave up in the end as the main character of Abi was so pathetic it was just winding me up. Her constant critism of her older sister just didn't ring true with her stated aim of becoming closer to her. It read as though Abi truely disliked Cleo, she certainly felt a huge amount of contempt for her. Also, for someone who claimed not to be materialistic, she seemed to notice and know the value of and care about a lot of what I would view as materialistic goods. Anyway, not much else to say. Just rubbish. Jane Fallon's earlier books were much better.
review 2: This isn't the kind of book I usually read these days - I seem to have moved into more ghoulish things, on the whole - but I borrowed this one from the ... morelibrary for the wholly ignoble reason of having only recently realised that the author is the very same Jane Fallon who was in my class at school - not the convent school she talks about in all her publicity, but a rather more academic one she bailed out of early on. (Wonder if she disliked our form teacher as much as I did? Anyway, that's beside the point, except that it was sheer curiosity that led me to try this!) Having said that is not relevant, perhaps it is - Jane has gone on to live a glamorous life, whereas I, her erstwhile classmate, am a (qualified) librarian, and that is partly what happens to the two sisters in this book - one becomes a supermodel, the other is a part-time library assistant (in a very obvious Cinderella role).She's been described as writing "chick lit with an edge" (by the Guardian), and I rather like this description - yes, the story is at times a little unbelievable, and there are several things which don't quite work for me, but this certainly isn't a simple girl-gets-bloke-and-will-have-his-babies story (without giving too much away, she doesn't!) The protagonist is 38 and her sister is older, for a start. The relationship between the sisters is quite painful - and, again, struck a chord with me, as the "poor relation" theme raises its head from time to time in my own family, and many others, no doubt, though this example is a bit extreme. In some ways, despite their middle age and experience, the sisters come across as teenagers, still operating at the same level they did years before. (Only recently my mother (80+) described very similar rivalries and behaviour in an old friend which went on for many years, so it is not that far removed from reality!)A fairly easy read, then: I enjoyed the setting of the book, mainly in London's Primrose Hill which I know a little; I liked the fact that Jane Fallon does not seem to have had her head turned by the world she now moves in; I also liked the "edge" (the lack of predictable outcomes). I felt the book fell down a bit in places, such as the sister's two daughters (delightful but they really did come across as being older than their supposed ages of 10 and 7), and, of course, being a librarian myself, I don't think she has got that bit quite right. OK, I do know it's an occupation people look down on - ideal therefore for the plain sister with no life to speak of - but it is still one for which you need to study and gain qualifications! You don't just "become a librarian" by going full time - and I would dearly love to know what local authority would allow its library assistants to disappear for a whole summer (nit-picking, I know, but believe me, it doesn't usually work like that!) Overall, though, I enjoyed it. A "Woman-and-Home" type of book, although I don't think they serialise as much of this style of thing as they used to. less

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