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A review by jessby
The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
3.0
Two parallel stories - one told by the Korean Red Queen detailing her palace life in the 18th Century and the other by Dr Babs Halliwell in the present day. Babs reads the memoirs of the Red Queen while on a flight to Korea, becoming consumed by the story and the relevance of it to her own life.
The Korean story was very fascinating. It was set in a time and place in which I admit to being very ignorant and I was intrigued and shocked, particularly by the story of the insane Prince Sado. However Babs was boring and the narration very annoying. The constant and inane questions that are continually put to the reader nearly drove me crazy - eg on p 178 "Is Dr Halliwell wishing she had been bold enough to insist on an upgrade? Should she have stood on ceremony and status? What is her status? Should she have risked putting it to the test? Is she a rising star and a mini-celebrity, as she sometimes believes herself to be? Or has she peaked already, at the age of forty-two? Will she get a promotion this year, next year? And if so, promotion to what? It has been a long climb to the midway place where she now finds herself: must she go on climbing for the rest of her life?"
So 4 stars for the Queen's first half and 2 stars Bab's second half - I averaged this out to give 3 stars.
The Korean story was very fascinating. It was set in a time and place in which I admit to being very ignorant and I was intrigued and shocked, particularly by the story of the insane Prince Sado. However Babs was boring and the narration very annoying. The constant and inane questions that are continually put to the reader nearly drove me crazy - eg on p 178 "Is Dr Halliwell wishing she had been bold enough to insist on an upgrade? Should she have stood on ceremony and status? What is her status? Should she have risked putting it to the test? Is she a rising star and a mini-celebrity, as she sometimes believes herself to be? Or has she peaked already, at the age of forty-two? Will she get a promotion this year, next year? And if so, promotion to what? It has been a long climb to the midway place where she now finds herself: must she go on climbing for the rest of her life?"
So 4 stars for the Queen's first half and 2 stars Bab's second half - I averaged this out to give 3 stars.