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krobart's review
3.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/review-1723-a-fugue-in-time/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/review-1723-a-fugue-in-time/
souloftherose's review against another edition
3.0
'The house, it seems, is more important than the characters. ‘In me you exist’,’ says the house.'
One of Rumer Godden's earlier novels - this was published in 1945 and tells the story of several generations of one family who have lived in the same London house for 99 years. The different time periods all blend together in this book as memories or ghosts arise in the characters mind's and the family changes from a late Victorian family with 9 children to the 1940s with only one of those children still in residence until they are joined by their great-niece from America. I find Godden's writing style very unique and very difficult to describe - all of her books are good but this was not her best and she revisits similar themes more successfully in [China Court] over a decade later. Still, I did enjoy this one.
One of Rumer Godden's earlier novels - this was published in 1945 and tells the story of several generations of one family who have lived in the same London house for 99 years. The different time periods all blend together in this book as memories or ghosts arise in the characters mind's and the family changes from a late Victorian family with 9 children to the 1940s with only one of those children still in residence until they are joined by their great-niece from America. I find Godden's writing style very unique and very difficult to describe - all of her books are good but this was not her best and she revisits similar themes more successfully in [China Court] over a decade later. Still, I did enjoy this one.
jenne's review against another edition
4.0
Such an interesting book, that's sort of about nothing and everything simultaneously (well, aren't all the best books like that?)
It manages to be both cosy and gossamer; almost claustrophobically stuck inside a house but at the same time it shimmers freely back and forth through past, present and future.
Also it's surprisingly very feminist for 1945. I don't think you'd write it any differently today!
This might actually be five stars, I can't quite decide. I think I need some distance from it.
It manages to be both cosy and gossamer; almost claustrophobically stuck inside a house but at the same time it shimmers freely back and forth through past, present and future.
Also it's surprisingly very feminist for 1945. I don't think you'd write it any differently today!
This might actually be five stars, I can't quite decide. I think I need some distance from it.
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