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Loading... The Way I Found Her (original 1997; edition 2009)by Rose Tremain
Work detailsThe Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain (1997)
None. Book reviewed on awayofwriting.blogspot.co.nz, under the title Apes and Monkeys (  ) michalsuz | Jun 16, 2013 |  This is one of my all time favourite reads. I was completely captivated by the narrator, Lewis, and his coming of age drama. I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to spoil anything, but having just felt quite disappointed with The Road Home because it seemed to me the characters were too cosseted, and that Tremain was running ahead and smoothing their way the whole time, I'd have to say that The Way I Found Her was a much, much braver book. I finished reading it at five in the morning and was so utterly bereft by the ending that I had to go wake my husband up to tell him about it. (Luckily, he's a good sport...) (  ) Melanielgarrett | Apr 2, 2013 | A disturbing and slightly unreal book that follows the tragic events of love and loss experienced by a 13-year old boy. The description of Paris re-creates the scene beautifully and the emotional intensity is powerful. The ending troubles me, as if Tremain had to invent some plot device to drive on the story. As a reader you feel involved in the drama of it all but afterwards it seems so unrelated to the rest of the book. The thing that remains is the emotional complexity of being 13. ( ) NeilDalley | Jun 27, 2010 | If you think of Rose Tremain as mainly a writer of historical novels, this one will surprise you as much as it did me. In fact, I kept forgetting that I wasn't reading a novel by Ian McEwan. It's a coming-of-age story and a mystery of sorts, involving a 13-year old English boy and a 40-ish Russian medieval romance writer. Lewis Little is spending the summer in France while his mother, a Scottish beauty, translates Valentina's latest work. He becomes obsessed with Valentina--an obsession whose depiction seemed very McEwanesque to me. Then, suddenly, Valentina disappears, and Lewis, not willing to leave matters to the police, determines to find her . . . I certainly didn't enjoy this as much as Tremain's historical novels like Music and Silence or Restoration, and I'm not much of a one for mysteries/crime novels. But overall, it kept my interest and was a pretty good read. (  )1  Cariola | Feb 14, 2010 | A book that was intriguing and highly enjoyable. It was an adventure story, a thriller, a romance, and an extreme coming of age story. An unexpected pleasure - I enjoyed it more than I expected when I first started reading. ( ) sarariches | Jan 13, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0671035703, Paperback)Lewis Little is less than thrilled when his summer plans change. Instead of staying in England as usual, he and his translator mum are off to Paris, where she has to do a rush job for an author of trashy medieval romances. At 13, the young hero of The Way I Found Her is already full of promise and notions, including the Exploding Peanut Theory of Beauty: "Beauty causes alteration. I'm talking about the beauty of women. Alteration may frequently result in some accident or other." His theory is to prove surprisingly prophetic. But though he thinks his mother's looks may well cause a life-or-death situation, her employer, Valentina Gavrilovich, is equally glam.Despite his initial misgivings about Paris, Lewis is soon right at home--or as at home as he can be in a huge apartment filled with strange noises coming from supposedly uninhabited rooms. Almost instantly obsessed with Valentina as well as alive to the demands and deep pleasures of language, domestic and foreign, he decides to follow in his mother's footsteps and translate Alain-Fournier's novel of lost happiness, Le Grand Meaulnes. Valentina herself has some cogent things to say about the selfish arts of writing and reading, including, "When you begin a book and you already know in the first line that everything is in the past, this makes you worry so for the character." (A quick return to the opening of The Way I Found Her reveals the phrase, "I don't want to talk about the present.") As the adults around him carry on with their jobs, romances, and intrigues, Lewis becomes increasingly cynical, particularly when it comes to his mother. As he tells himself, "Parents think they can time everything to suit themselves: they just don't see what they might be burdening you with." His mother's actions, however, become almost as nothing when Valentina suddenly disappears. At this point, The Way I Found Her turns into a curious hybrid--both a coming-of-age story and a thriller--and perhaps Tremain's strengths lie more with the former. Still, this book is an edgy exploration of responsibility, attraction, and betrayal. It is equally a loving evocation of literature's power. Lewis's takes on Le Grand Meaulnes and Crime and Punishment should send many in their direction; many others will turn to Tremain's odd and accomplished Sacred Country and Restoration. (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:27:29 -0500) English teenager Lewis spends the summer of 1994 exploring Paris while his mother translates a medieval romance. The workings of Lewis's mind provide an experience which is utterly out of the ordinary. Tremain also wrote Restoration and Sacred Country.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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