The Last Sane Woman: A Novel (Verso Fiction)
by Hannah Regel
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Description
"Nicola is a few years out of a fine arts degree, listless and unenthusiastically employed in London. At a university archive dedicated to women's art, she discovers one side of a correspondence beginning in 1976 and spanning a dozen years, written from one woman-a ceramics graduate, uncannily like Nicola-to her friend, who is living a contrasting and conventionally moored life. As she reads on, an acute sense of affinity turns into obsession, and she abandons one job after another to make show more time for the archive. The litany of coincidences in the letters starts to become uncomfortably uncanny, and Nicola's feeling of ownership begets a growing dread: what if she doesn't like where the letters lead?"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a story of friendship; of connection; of failure.
Nicola is a fine arts graduate employed as a nursing aid in a school, which she hates. She finds a collection of letters written by a potter (Donna) to her friend (Susan) over the period of a dozen years in a feminist archive. Nicola becomes obsessed with Donna, especially because she sees so many parallels in their lives.
The novel unfolds from the perspectives of Nicola, Donna and Susan. Susan is living a conventional life as a wife and mother while Donna pursues her art -- largely unsuccessfully -- and Nicola drifts between jobs and ponders the lives of Donna and Susan. There are times when we are inside the characters' heads, including dreams and fears.
The writing was quite show more good. I found myself a little confused at times about what was real. I didn't really get all of Susan's motivations. And I found myself not really caring about the characters. But that's on me...they were well developed and not boring people. A fine book that just wasn't my cup of tea. show less
Nicola is a fine arts graduate employed as a nursing aid in a school, which she hates. She finds a collection of letters written by a potter (Donna) to her friend (Susan) over the period of a dozen years in a feminist archive. Nicola becomes obsessed with Donna, especially because she sees so many parallels in their lives.
The novel unfolds from the perspectives of Nicola, Donna and Susan. Susan is living a conventional life as a wife and mother while Donna pursues her art -- largely unsuccessfully -- and Nicola drifts between jobs and ponders the lives of Donna and Susan. There are times when we are inside the characters' heads, including dreams and fears.
The writing was quite show more good. I found myself a little confused at times about what was real. I didn't really get all of Susan's motivations. And I found myself not really caring about the characters. But that's on me...they were well developed and not boring people. A fine book that just wasn't my cup of tea. show less
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Author Information
5 Works 66 Members
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Nicola; Donna; Susan
- Dedication
- For my mum, Sharon.
- First words
- The smell is lost.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I do, though.
- Blurbers
- Lafarge, Daisy; Mackintosh, Sophie
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 60
- Popularity
- 513,111
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
