Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme sponsored by Katy at A Few More Pages. Here's what you do: share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section . Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and if you liked or did not like that sentence. Link-up each week at Katy's place.
I'm currently reading The Second Wife by Elizabeth Buchan. It begins:
On my Wedding day, I got dressed in a red silk full skirt, to hide my ten-weeks pregnant figure, and a black jacket. For a considerable time I hovered in front of the mirror in the cramped bedroom of my flat, fiddling with the lie of the skirt, adjusting my makeup and wishing I could wear high heels, but pregnancy made my feet hurt.
In January, 2004, I read Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Buchan. It's the story of Rose, a 40-ish woman whose husband leaves her just as she is fired from her job. Turns out her assistant Minty gets both the job and the husband. The "revenge" in the title referred to Rose's transformation from depression to a competent and confidently independent woman.
Now, in The Second Wife, Buchan continues the story of the fractured family, but from the point of view of the other woman, Minty.
It must have been a real challenge to write Minty as deserving of sympathy and admiration when she was so clearly the villain in the earlier book—self-centered and calculating. But Buchan carries it off deftly. Don't just read one of these books—read them both.
It would be hard to depict the villain in a sympathetic way--sounds like an interesting set of books!
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in Book Beginnings! :D