Reviews

Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie

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jenrm's review against another edition

5.0

Agatha Christie had a great gift of truly knowing and understanding human nature. In this book, the main character, Joan, is stranded in the desert with no one but herself to talk to. So there she is alone with her thoughts. And that's what is so frightening! At first, she fights the thoughts, makes excuses - not direct quotes but ideas like: "oh it's a fear of open spaces that makes me feel this way" or "oh, it's the heat that makes my mind play tricks on me" or "it must be a fever, that's it, I'm likely just ill"! Desperate for an excuse for what she is discovering about herself ... that she is not a likeable woman, that her children and her husband do not love her (though she does very much love them, she just has never acted like she has). She realizes how horrible and selfish and fake she has been all these years. That she's a picture of someone she'd admire but she's not really admirable. And then she has a conversion experience, something that a lady she met on the train home to England shows to her. Yet this lady looks at her doubtfully when she says that Joan has had a conversion experience, much like St. Paul and other apostles and great people of faith. And you wonder why this stranger is doubt-filled. What does she see that we, the reader, cannot see? Then Joan arrives home and she's faced with a choice: let her family see the change, start life fresh and seek forgiveness; or pretend nothing at all happened, pretend life is as it always was because that is what is comfortable and uncomplicated. And, as the reader, you're hopeful and you think, "She's going to do it! She's going to carry out what she wanted when she experienced this conversion! She'll seek forgiveness and they will start fresh! And they will live happily ever after!" But it doesn't happen that way. She chooses wrong and her miserable life continues and she chooses to live in the delusion that it is a good life.

readsewknit's review against another edition

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5.0

When I was younger, I devoured Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries, and at some point, I learned of ABSENT IN THE SPRING, a book written by Agatha Christie under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. It's my favorite title of Christie's by far (and often lands in my top few titles of all time).

This is not a mystery and I find it on a different plane of writing skill. Much of this book is a solitary exercise into the mind and the past, as our flawed protagonist Joan Scudamore finds herself stranded at a rest house near a train station where there is little for entertainment and the servants who are there have minimal English. She is returning home after spending time with one of her daughters, and while she awaits the train, she is reflecting on her husband, her marriage, and her daughters.

To have a flawed narrator who is steadily communicating insights to the reader while remaining oblivious for so long takes a deft hand; this is a heartbreaking read, and I get so caught up in what was and what could have been. It's just brilliant.

blaire_evan's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

spookysoto's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5/5
Es un libro distinto al género que me más gusta, el políciaco, a pesar de haber sido escrito por Agatha Christie (bajo un pseudonimo); sin embargo, me hizo pensar en cómo vemos el mundo, cómo el mundo nos ve y como esas dos versiones no coinciden en muchas ocasiones. Es un libro simple, pero muy profundo, sin ser pretencioso, que demuestra el gran conocimiento de la autora de la naturaleza humana. Es ágil a pesar de prácticamente tener una sola protagonista y no llega a cansar. Me sorprendió gratamente.
Lo recomiendo.

noraem's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

megjobethamy's review against another edition

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5.0

This is an uncomfortable and heartbreaking story. People like to assume they are self aware, but of course most people aren't. What happens when one woman is alone with her thoughts for the first time in her life and she begins to see her life and family for what they really are, and how she is the cause of much of their unhappiness. She's not a bad woman but her expectations, authoritative style, and lack of any empathy whatsoever certainly make her a difficult character. But, as she comes to these realizations I felt pity for her.

This story is all character driven and self reflection, and packs a lot of emotion within few pages. I recommend reading this outside on a sunny day, to balance the general unhappiness of the text