Maggie O'Farrell's writing is atmospheric and immersive. The way she writes seeps into the cracks in my brain, and I'm experiencing what her characters are living. This is hard because she loves a tortured, disregarded, lonely, prickly main character. The Marriage Portrait presents Lucrezia de Medici, who became Duchess of Ferrara at fifteen and died at sixteen. There is debate about her death. Most believe she died of tuberculosis, and a minority hold her husband killed her. O'Farrell produces a fierce character who struggles like a caged tiger for freedom from her sociopathic husband. The book opens with Lucrezia declaring her husband has brought her to an isolated hunting lodge to kill her. The story moves between her early life and her current situation. It's a tense dance of thinking there is no way she survives, but the more I know about her, the more I want her to.
I read a review that condemned the book as being "overwrought." I could see his point, and at times, when reading, I wondered why spend space describing minutia? My conclusion is O'Farrell sees it that way. Her style in The Marriage Portrait reminds me of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. One's persons lush and verdant is another's overgrown eyesore.
Review: maggie-ofarrell-marriage-portrait.html
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This was a week for historical fiction. Trust, by Hernan Diaz, takes place in America and Europe in the early 29th century and revolves around a wealthy, reclusive couple. Reading Trust was like opening a Russian nesting doll. Each subsequent doll is similar and, yet, unique from the previous doll. The are four narrators, and each one reveals more of the central couple. In the book, themes of money, patriarchy, and media are unpacked in living color. Diaz writes convincingly in several different voices; his plot and characters display a sophisticated talent. As a result, this book is both substantive and surprising.
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