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Title: The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0-451-19195-1 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.82 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The death of love---no one does it better than Barbara Vine!
Comment: Jenny/Genevieve Warner is one of the most appealing heroines in contemporary women's fiction. Vine (Ruth Rendell) creates a dark, complex plot that unwinds almost too slowly, drawing the reader inward, to a conclusion too horrifying to want to believe. How does love die? Many ways, but none more sad than the story of Stella and her boyhood sweetheart, reunited at last and lost to each other forever. Strong stuff! Is redemption at hand with what might happen with Jenny and Richard, Stella's son? Vine leaves it open, but surely some happiness has to come out of all this misery! Masterfully written; a poignant psychological mystery. The setting --- the brooding, watery fens of England's east coast, adds a subtle layer of unease to the story and almost becomes another character with which to reckon. Another writer who does this well -- combining mystery, broody setting, and psychological drama -- is the wonderful Minette Walters.
Rating: 5
Summary: another masterpiece
Comment: Genevieve Warner, a young woman trapped in a hopeless affair and a loveless marriage, works at Middleton Hall, a home for the elderly. Most of the residents are pleasant enough, contentedly reminiscing about their lives to their carers, but Stella is different. Stella and Genevieve immediately form a bond, taking to one another, seeing little bits of their own personality and situation within the other. Unlike other residents, though, Stella is sharp, smart, and in control, and she does not share the memories of her past, so retains a definite air of mystery. But Stella is dying of lung-cancer, and now she feels a desperate need to tell someone the story of her eventful life, so that her secrets do not die with her, following her into the grave, unknown forever. Thus, she decides to tell her story to Genevieve, slowly unfolding a tale that is moving, powerful, and, ultimately, subtly horrific.
This, "The Brimstone Wedding", is yet another masterpiece of atmospheric fiction from Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell). Yet again she synthesises her twin storylines - one in the past, one in the present - brilliantly, and they eerily mirror each other down the generations. She builds the atmosphere brilliantly in both the time periods, and the suspense is continually ratcheted up, helped along by subtle and tantalising hints as to what exactly Stella's shocking secret could possibly be.
This time around, the characters are also more likeable than is the norm for a Vine novel, so it has a warmer, deceptively (and dangerously) cosy feel, which is juxtaposed with the usual chilly atmosphere and down-to-the-bones and wonderfully detached writing style. They're characters you are motivated to care deeply about, which serves to make this not only a powerful in places but also very moving. Certainly, there was one point when I even shed a few tears.
The story is told brilliantly, giving readers enough information to satisfy, but yet as little as possible, to ensure that they need continually to turn the page to find out more. It all culminates excellently with a shocking revelation about the true nature of Stella's secret. This revelation is not overblown and exaggerated, as some authors might make it, instead Vine underplays it, clearing it entirely of melodrama and simply telling things exactly as they were, which forces the reader to actually think about it, thus bringing huge power to the climax.
This, a masterpiece that is the sum of many excellent parts, is a complete triumph for Vine, matching up very equally with my previous favourite of hers, the erotic and chilling genius that is "No Night Is Too Long". Neither of these books should be passed over by any reader worth their salt.
Rating: 5
Summary: Atmospheric mystery of infidelity
Comment: Driven by atmosphere and character, this novel by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, centers around two stories of infidelity and deception.
Genevieve, 32, a working-class caretaker at a private nursing home, confides her affair to her favorite patient, Stella, who is middle-class, educated, affluent and dying. Stella responds with the keys to a house none of her family knows she owns, a house no one has visited in 30 years. She asks Genevieve to report its condition.
Shocked that something so valuable could be simply abandoned -for whatever reason - Genevieve appropriates it as a trysting place, her curiosity only slightly piqued by the abandoned, burned car in the garage, the photographs hidden away, the food and champagne left in the refrigerator.
And so begins a story in tandem as Genevieve's stolen meetings alternate with Stella's story of her own doomed love. Character precipitates the events of the plot, and as we increasingly sympathize with Stella's shy dignity and Genevieve's fretful ardor, foreboding envelops the narrative like a London fog. Not to be missed.
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Title: The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0451402111 Publisher: New Amer Library Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0452270642 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0451403886 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Anna's Book by Ruth Rendell ISBN: 0451405498 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Grasshopper: A Novel (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0375726500 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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