Author : Barbara Taylor Bradford
Publisher : HarperCollins
Date published : 1998 Number of pages: 333
Genre : Romance Book code : BAR/PBI/NV/0833
This is an extraordinary story of friendship between two extraordinary women--Laura Valiant and Claire Benson, the stand out character in this novel. Laura, raised by her grandparents, goes on to become a famous art expert and advisor. She is a direct, forthright woman who believes "there's a solution to everything". Claire, oldest than Laura, is the chic publisher and editor of Decorative Arts and Design magazine.
The most interesting part of this story is when When Claire is diagnosed with breast cancer, she turns yet again to Laura for comfort and support--and to make the painful request that should she die. As Laura struggles with the notion that she might lose the person who means the most to her in the world, she attempts to convince Claire that she would always be there for her and support her to cope with her cancer. The way she did it really tells me what friendship mean.
There is a part of the story that is confusing me. The writer mixes the poignant story of Holocaust survivors and the machinations of the high-stakes art world. This part really makes me confused. I need to search for the history of Nazi’s to relate it with the story. I don’t understand why the writer used the tale of stolen- world art in this romance novel.
I dislike the part of the novel when it told so much about art, the description of paintings and its history. It really makes me bored to read it. I also dislike all the part when the characters met each other and decided to have lunch, dinner, breakfast or just to have a drink together. I found it at almost in each chapter of this novel. That’s so boring part and doesn’t even have a relation to the story but why it is told so much and detailed in the story.
I think what was happened with the characters in this novel often does in the real life, that is women with successful careers were not always so lucky in their personal lives. Both women in this story have used their intelligence, charm and talents to attain career success, but they've proven less successful when it comes to affairs of the heart.Claire has divorced her husband, Philippe Lavillard. At the same time, Laura's storybook marriage with Doug Casson has suddenly come to an end. For reasons she can't quite figure out, Doug's feelings for her have changed, and he no longer is able to muster the passion for her that once came so easily.
The largest issue in the story is about how friendship and love connect some very different people. The writer explores relationships between older and younger characters, men and women who are friends and lovers. Bradford describes the nuances of love and friendship. And in this novel, it comes out in full force through her two main characters, Laura Valiant and Claire Benson, who have been best friends since childhood. Now in their thirties, Laura and Claire face crises including divorce, death, and the residue of unhappy childhood.
The lesson that I got from the story is how easy it is for heart to change. The story when Claire changed to be not like herself, when Doug’s feeling to Laura have changed, when Laura comes to radically change the way she feels about the Lavillards, and when finally she found a new man which means her heart has changed really makes me realize that people do change and we have to deal with their change. The relationship between the characters is also teaches me how the gifts of family, friendship and love help us survive the greatest of tragedies.
No comments:
Post a Comment