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Ashford Park (2013)

by Lauren Willig(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Espasa

review 1: I loved the mystery in this book, which spanned several time periods and generations. In 1999, Clementine Evans learns that she has a long-lost relative named Bea. The woman was her Granny Addie's cousin, and apparently Clemmie looks a lot like her. But why has nobody ever mentioned her before, and what are all these cutting and cryptic remarks from her Aunt Anna?The story moves between Clemmie's hectic life as a junior lawyer in Manhattan to the past where we learn about Addie and Bea as young girls, debutantes, and young women. The story also moves from Edwardian England before and after World War I to the plantations of Kenya in the 1920s. The tension builds as Clemmie delves deeper into her family's history to find out what happened to Bea.I found many parallels betwee... moren Bea and Scarlett from Gone With the Wind. They are both debutantes brought up to be ladies, run great houses, and rule over the social set. However, their lives are interrupted by a great war that obliterates everything they have been trained for. I don't think Bea handled it as well as Scarlett, but you'll have to decide for yourself.There are also threads of romance throughout the book, both in the present and the past. However, I wouldn't categorize this book as primarily a "romance." It does have a satisfying ending, though.
review 2: I had almost forgotten how much I loved historical fiction, novels that spanned a century more or less, fleshing out the people who might have lived among real events, reminding us of another time. This story alternates between New York City in 1999 beginning with the 99th birthday celebration of Addie and her memories of her visit to her cousin Bea in Kenya starting in 1926. Complicated families, three generations of secrets, pretending, avoiding, concerns and hurts, real and imagined, and the consequences of war make up the rich plot of this expansive novel. In 1999, two sisters, Marjorie and Anna, in their late seventies, very different personalities, are holding on to 60+ years of grievances against each other, sniping and criticizing. Their children, Clemmie Evans and Jon Schwartz, who have enjoyed sparring and competing with one another for years, vying for attention and approval, are also in the midst of personal and professional crises.Bea Gillecote, later touted as the “Debutante of the Decade” is the pampered, adored, and often bored daughter of Vera and Charles. In 1906, her cousin, Addie, comes from her home in Bloomsbury to live with them at Ashford, a sprawling mansion in London, when she is orphaned. Addie's mother, a successful novelist, and her father were killed in a pedestrian accident. Vera, unfortunately, disrespectfully dismisses Addie's parents as bohemian and subversive, a fact she never allows Addie to forget. The back story and under story builds, engaging the reader, fleshing out all the wrongs and hurt, shifting the reader's sympathy several times. So much of the novel shares the sweeping social changes in London in the years following World War I; the comparison between Addie and Bea is palpable with Bea immersed in the social scene of underground clubs while the more serious, social activist Addie perceives that life as “an expense of spirit in a waste of shame.” Life in Kenya following Bea's arrival in 1926 is filled with angst, intrigue, and passion, changing forever the lives of Addie, Bea and her husband, Frederick Desborough. Mysteries deepen, secrets are kept for decades, and upon Granny Addie's death, Clemmie discovers unsettling truths. The unraveling of secrets and surfacing of new details was surprising and yet, plausible, revealing the independent nature of Addie and Bea throughout their lives and a reconciliation of sorts that the reader might not have thought possible.“Those were dramatic times. The twilight of the aristocracy, two world wars – we're kind of tame in comparison.” I guess so! less

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