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askaglassofwater's review against another edition
I really, really tried with this book and I still couldn't finish it. Around a third (?) of the way through there's a bit that's like 'if you aren't enjoying this book, I encouraged you to stop'. I pressed on our of spite and the decision that it wasn't that bad. a while later I admitted defeat, I never wanted to pick it up to read it, I might as well stop. maybe I'll go back to it someday, because it's not like it's badly written. it's well written, the characters interesting. it just bored me so much.
I can't find an option for stars because I pressed dnf, but 2 stars max
I can't find an option for stars because I pressed dnf, but 2 stars max
lisa_mc's review against another edition
4.0
What if events of the past few years turned out a little different? What if someone who wasn't ended up being so? How would the world be different? Fay Weldon takes on these questions and blurs the lines of perception and reality, fiction and history in the clever, engaging "Chalcot Crescent."
Frances, the narrator, is an 80-something woman in the London of the near future, where the sociologist/psychologist-run National Unity Government (or "NUG") has taken over. Not as touchy-feely as it sounds, this government has its own rules for society. But the book's not really about that; it just forms the backdrop. Frances -- a fiction writer, presented in the intro as the sister Fay lost when her mother had a miscarriage -- moves back and forth between the past and the present, detailing her lovers and friends and family history as her grandchildren plot against the NUG and she's stuck in her house on Chalcot Crescent.
What is Frances imagining and what is real? Are her children everything they seem? And what's really in National Meat Loaf since it's "suitable for vegetarians" -- or is it? Less a cautionary tale than a glimpse at what we might have to get used to, "Chalcot Crescent" is at turns wryly funny and wistful, gently and honestly exposing the various weaknesses most of us would demonstrate in the face of changes we don't fully understand.
Frances, the narrator, is an 80-something woman in the London of the near future, where the sociologist/psychologist-run National Unity Government (or "NUG") has taken over. Not as touchy-feely as it sounds, this government has its own rules for society. But the book's not really about that; it just forms the backdrop. Frances -- a fiction writer, presented in the intro as the sister Fay lost when her mother had a miscarriage -- moves back and forth between the past and the present, detailing her lovers and friends and family history as her grandchildren plot against the NUG and she's stuck in her house on Chalcot Crescent.
What is Frances imagining and what is real? Are her children everything they seem? And what's really in National Meat Loaf since it's "suitable for vegetarians" -- or is it? Less a cautionary tale than a glimpse at what we might have to get used to, "Chalcot Crescent" is at turns wryly funny and wistful, gently and honestly exposing the various weaknesses most of us would demonstrate in the face of changes we don't fully understand.
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed Weldon's style and was pleasantly surprised by the dystopian elements of the plot. The political climate seemed very probable.
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