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The Distant Hours (2010)

by Kate Morton(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1439152780 (ISBN13: 9781439152782)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atria

review 1: Firstly, I was really pleased that for the most part , the annoying anachronisms and sloppy historical references that slipped into Morton's previous novels seem to have been picked up before publishing in `Distant Hours` (unless of course they were never there in the first place). I left this Kate Morton a while before reading it, having read all of her other novels, because the reader reviews suggested that it was not as good as her previous works. Let that be a salutary lesson - I thought it was possibly the best. Yes, it was a Gothic Novel; Yes , of necessity there was an element of cliché, Yes, it was a door stop (or would have been if I had bought the physical version instead of the Kindle one.) There is a certain formula for a Gothic Novel and Morton's version brou... moreght it into the realms of contemporary ...literature ... Is perhaps too much... Best Seller. Morton is good at menace. This had menace in buckets (of mud). The menace is the menace in a character's mind, transmitted to the reader; is that thing under the bed really an other worldly monster or just another dirty sock? Lovely stuff.The underlying themes deal with a kind of mother-daughter emotional isolation, jealousy, roles of women in mid-late 20th century society, repression of self ,The underlying themes deal with a kind of mother-daughter emotional isolation, jealousy, roles of women in mid-late 20th century society, repression of self, self reliance and reliance upon others, sacrifice, creativity, honesty, truth and lies and keeping up of appearances and loads more.This very much a Gothic Novel, which, when read with the sense of irony necessary to buy into the [what I think is a deliberate device] cock-eyed cliche and purple prose is actually a cracking good yarn. A good author will give you the clues to the `mystery' from page 1, and in TDH the story was there. How the reader took it in, and related it to the actual plot must be something down to individual reader psyches, an example of how the individual reader is a necessary part of the novel itself. Unless reading a who-dun-it genre, where clues are with-held until the end to prevent the reader solving the mystery, personally, I think the author of a character-theme driven novel fails if the reader does not grasp what is going on, where the plot is going. Surprises and twists in the conclusion are a bonus, not a requirement. Morton consistently does supply these by way of a finale, and TDH is no exception. Predictability of the denouement is, to this reader, less relevant than a satisfactory conclusion where no threads are left dangling and where any struggles the characters have faced are resolved in one way or another.Other readers have criticised the novel for its length and for `not getting on with it'. When I started reading, I must admit I did find the concept of the undelivered letter upon which the tome was going to pivot a bit weird- it just would not happen in that UK in that way. The dithering around before launching into the tale proper threatened to be frustrating enough to skip it until one remembers that Best Selling Authors do things for a reason. Good Writers (and Morton surely must be counted as one) write in a certain way for a reason and the perseverance paid off. I concede that some stuff could be considered padding and removed, but why? If a reader is in so much of a hurry, there is no law against skipping non-dynamic passages, but for the reader grabbing every nuance of the many interwoven themes and tropes they are grist to the psychological mill of the characters and the story (/stories!) . Some stories need to be tight. This one needs to put across an atmosphere of ennui in order for us to experience the darkness and drama more intensely.I would recommend that prospective readers not be put off by the negative aspects of some reviews, and I also think that the precis of the plot in no way does justice to this complex novel. IMHO The Distant Hours is different from Morton's other novels, perhaps in some ways more mature and introspective, and as such disappointing for those readers who prefer the more plot driven style of her other novels.
review 2: I enjoyed reading this book, but I didn't feel it was as well done as The Forgotten Garden nor The Secret Keeper. I didn't think the initial letter discovery tied in so well with the story and was not satisfied by the tying up of loose ends at the end. Some mysteries seemed resolved, others barely so, and there were a few other random surprises that hadn't been so well developed. I finished the book feeling a bit unsatisfied. less

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