I Read Therefore I Am discussion

I'm really enjoying The Ballad and the Source so far - I don't think I've read anything quite like it before.

I'm loving Dusty Answer so far, not my usual sort of read but so gorgeously written, I'm completely enthralled by it.

I had the day off work today and spent most of the time enthralled in the Ballad and the Source - the life story of Sybil Anstey as related to Rebecca the 10 year old grand daughter of her dearest friend, who is far too young to understand the scandalous and tragic events involved. It's funny, shocking, sad and totally gripping - I heartily recommend it.
I want to read all Ms Lehmanns novels now.

I hadn't heard of Rosamond Lehmann before and just read a little about her. Is she much read in Britain?. She's hardly been translated unfortunately it seems, but I've just added Dusty Answer to my TR-list as it sounds great.

I'm not sure really, I'd never heard of her till Lee's magic randomiser chose her as a monthly author - I'm nearly halfway through Dusty Answer and would definitely recommend it, it's a lovely novel and I can see myself reading more of Lehrmann's work in the future!

I don't think she's very widely read - she was very popular at the beginning of her career and then became slightly forgotten about - I think she must be making a bit of a comeback at the moment as many of her books have been released on kindle.

Since Laurel is mentioning it: Lee, which list do you use to pick at random?

It's the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide: Discover your next great read

Oh that looks good. Is it?

Yes it's very good - it has information about 100s of authors - for each one it briefly describes their subject and style and a couple of their best known books, it then lists their other writings and finally has a further reading section where it suggests similar books by other authors.

Oh sigh, I blame it on you entirely that my 'want to read list' (or in this case 'want to own'-list) has now progressed from 566 to 567 titles. ;)

Lol I'm trying not to buy it but it does look very good.

I've finished Dusty Answer which was a bit of a surprise to be honest. If I look at it objectively, it's ridiculously sentimental but.... it was so beautifully written I absolutely loved it.

@ Jenny - apologies :0)
@ Laurel - adding Dusty Answer to my to read list now.

Just up to page 28 of the Ballad and the Source but I think I'm hooked already. Intrigued by Mrs Jardine, she seems very Miss Havershamish but obviously isn't, can't wait to find out all her secrets.

I love the combination of her high falllouting way of speaking and Rebecca's puzzled responses.

Finished the Ballad and the Source. What a fascinating book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought the structure of basing it on conversations with, in the beginning, a small child worked well and was made for some humorous moments that really illustrated how a child's mind works. The main characters were all very interesting, with many twists and turns in their personalities. The star of the show Mrs Jardine, kept you guessing right until the end. I'll definitely try to read more of Lehmann.

What did you think of Mrs Jardine in the end? I lost sympathy with her when she was telling Rebecca how she sent her lover to "wake up" Ianthe.

I don't think I had any sympathy for her even from the beginning to be honest. She seemed too good to be true to me. I could never quite believe what she was saying, not the facts but her interpretation of them. By the end I thought she was a bit of a monster. I even thought for a while that she'd killed Cherry! What did you think of Harry? The ending where he is thinking about "not letting her in" was a bit if a revelation and made me try to remember everything that had happened with him previously. Did you get the feeling that we didn't actually get to the whole truth even at the end. It was a really intriguing read.

I do think that Harry hated her - but couldn't stand up to her. It seems like when he got ill he chose not to fight it so that he could get away from her by dying.

There is actually a sequel of sorts - The Sea Grape Tree. It was her final novel and some people do not think it is as good as her earlier books partly due to the fact that she was,by the time of writing it, heavily into spiritualism after the death of her daughter. It's got good reviews on amazon though so I think I'll invest £2.81 on it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Sea-Grape-T...

Oh dear - I've stalled on The Ballad and the Source. I'm about halfway, nearly at the end of part 3. At first I liked the structure, the way there were two levels of meaning; what we see Rebecca understanding and our own realisation that there are other, more adult, meanings. However I've grown rather tired of this style; it seems to keep you at one remove from the action. I think I'll have to take a break and see if I can come back to it.

@ Joy, that's a shame I do hope you come back to it, I rather enjoyed the structure of it.

@Lee, thanks for that Lee, I think I'll do the same. I'm intrigued as to "what happened next"