May 2024: Maggie O'Farrell

In May, we will visit the work of Maggie O'Farrell (1972-05-27) - a UK author from Northern Ireland.

Her most popular book is Hamnet. It is also the only one I had read.

What do you plan to read? If you like her and had read most (all?) of her work, which is your favorite?

I've read Hamnet and enjoyed it.

I plan to read either The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox or Instructions for a Heatwave.

I read Hamnet, but right after having a very painful achilles tendon surgery, so I don't know if my lack of enthusiasm for it was due to the actual book/writing or to pain; or both! I may try a re-read of Hamnet or I also have on my virtual shelf The Marriage Portrait.

I had not even heard of this author so I decided to look her up. Sounds like I've been missing out! I've picked up Hamnet (in a French translation because the wait at the library was too long otherwise) and will start it today. I'm looking forward to it.

I just finished reading This Must Be the Place and found it quite enjoyable.

I'm half way through Hamnet and quite enjoying it.

Now finished it. A powerful novel which I greatly enjoyed. The author's writing style is very evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of Elizabethan Stratford and London, though I thought the descriptions of grief, while very evocative, were perhaps a little overdone, and I was initially slightly confused by the rapidly changing timestreams.

oops I forgot to star this thread! shes one of my all time fav brit authors. Ive read most of her work but suspect there is something out there I can choose.

double post

didn't know she wrote books for children the boy who lost his spark and where snow angels go think Ill read those too and perhaps reread after you'd gone, her first book and the one which made me think this is an author to watch....my favs are hamnet I am I am I am, vanishing act of Esme Lennox

eta, the childrens books are from britian and the price for them with shipping is rather high, will have to check the library

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell In 2021 this was a DNF for me. I couldn't handle the very disjointed timelines. This was still an issue with the re-read, but this time I was able to focus. Because of the intense focus, this re-read was not ultimately enjoyable. That being said, I did like the story and the actual prose. Would I read another by this author? Probably not; but I could be convinced! 372 pages 3 stars AOTM

I'm not sure I'll have a book for this in time.

If you haven't voted, visit https://www.librarything.com/topic/360838# to vote for the Jul-Aug-Sep authors.

I've officially given up on Hamnet which I picked up and left off multiple times through out the month. I really wanted to like it; I liked the premise and was looking to learn something from Shakespeare's life (ultimately I did but from doing background reading in Wikipedia :P).

I didn't like the impressionistic style which I found too precious and flowery. While it did convey clear images, I felt like I was watching a too-bright technicolor movie (something directed by Baz Luhrmann) and I found it tiring and bogging. Like Tess, I am unlikely to pick another by this author. I suspect she's lauded for her unique writing style and it's not for me.

Hamnet is written in a different style from her other boks. I you might try her earlier work since they are very much standard novels. or not :)

>15 cindydavid4: Thanks for the tip, Cindy. Good to know if the opportunity presents itself: I can go into it with a more open mind.

And I've officially given up on The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. I've read about a third of the book and have decided it's not for me. It's about a young woman who gets a call from an insane asylum to claim an unknown great-aunt who is being released. The story moves back and forth in time and I was frustrated by the vagueness of the timeframe and elements that seemed extraneous to the story.

Interestingly, last year I read Secret Harvests by David Mas Masumoto, which is a memoir about a very similar real situation. Masumoto received a call about an unknown aunt in a mental hospital in California who was dying. Masumoto has to dig through family secrets, but he does it with love and compassion as he unravels the family history and ultimately American history. I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in this topic.

I couldn't feel that empathy in O'Farrell's book; it felt like it was headed in directions I didn't want to go. I enjoyed Hamnet, but this book isn't for me.

>17 kac522: I didnt have trouble with the time line but did have trouble with the vaugeness of the time; These institutions were being emptied long before this grand niece would have been around.and there was details abuses that I had a very hard time reading about, But I ended up liking the book, esp the ending but ymmv

>18 cindydavid4: Yep, I decided to get off the train before the abusive parts. Don't need to go there.

I hear you