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Drowning Rose (2000)

by Marika Cobbold(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

140880817X (ISBN13: 9781408808177)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Bloomsbury

review 1: Drowning Rose is one of the most beautifully written books I have read for a very long time. The story is centred on Eliza, a ceramics restorer, who tries to restore everything except for her own shattered life. She blamed herself for the death of her friend, Rose, at boarding school and her life has since been blighted by guilt. The themes of waste and reparation are present on many levels throughout the book. The narrative, provided by Eliza, is interspersed with accounts by Sandra/Cassandra, of their time at school. Sandra, the outsider, gradually feeds us with more information about what actually happened at school, and shows us different facets of the lives and characters of Eliza and her friends. The background detail is fascinating, whether it be the world of cerami... morecs restoration or boarding school life. There are beautifully described scenes set in Sweden, where Eliza visits her Godfather who is also Rose's father, with enchanting detail of Swedish customs. These are charming, but often tinged with a touch of darkness. This darkness is a thread running throughout the book, laced between the lighter moments and showing up in the characters and their imperfect relationships. It is offset by the feather-light language and the wonderfully dark humour present throughout. The imagery is finely drawn and highly original, making you linger on the ideas it is representing. The reader is drawn in by Eliza's fragility and her appealing character, which is contrasted with Sandra's self-centred, snobbish personality. The delicacy and originality of the writing, the off-the-wall humour and the depiction of the beautifully realistic flawed characters had me glued to this book, and, on finishing it, I felt compelled to immediately start reading it all over again.
review 2: I always enjoy Marika Cobbold's books, having read most of them, not just for the characters or the story - I have to say that I could see how this one would end quite early on. No, it is her style that makes me nod and smile; witty, dark and quite ascerbic at times but always perceptive, making you feel that she observes life around her and makes a note of things she sees and hears for use at some future point in her writing. less

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