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The Hand That First Held Mine (2009)

by Maggie O'Farrell(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0547330790 (ISBN13: 9780547330792)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: Some books just hit you because of who you are... this was one of them. I wasn't thrilled at the beginning, and even through the middle... the disjointed style made me feel like neither story was being developed. But in the end, Lexie's story got to me. I still feel like Ted's story felt disjointed and undeveloped... even in the end, it just didn't work for me. But the emotion that I felt, as a mom, from the second half of Lexie's story had me emotional for quite some time after I finished... and I feel like any book that can elicit that kind of emotional connection has a lot of merit... I just wish the other story had the same appeal.
review 2: I actually don't think I've ever read any Maggie O'Farrell before, but she seems to be some many people's "favourite ... moreauthor" that I thought she must be worth a go and I spotted this book in the library.I enjoyed it a lot! Two parallel stories run right through and it was satisfyingly difficult to figure out the connection between them. It is a mark of how well written the story was that I did not guess correctly until literally the moment the link was revealed. I had inklings but I could not have guessed it.I loved the continuous motion of the writing, days and weeks and months passing smoothly with at times almost a Virginia Woolfe style attention to detail. My best friend became a mother for the first time about a year ago and I feel I know a lot more about what her life has been like this past year, from reading the description of Elina's life with her baby.I'd say it was a relatively "light read", it didn't require a lot of concentration or effort but that's ok. less

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