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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Mrs. Osmond by John Banville

In order to read this book you would benefit greatly from having read A Portrait of a Lady recently enough to remember the characters and their motivations well enough to dive right in/. Where the one leaves off, this one begins.
I am not exactly sure how I feel about sequels that are written by another author in another time, but this one is very satisfying.  For one thing, Isabel Archer, now Mrs. Osmond, deserves a better ending than she got in the original.  That is of course the nature of a tragedy that the good inevitably suffer in a way that is understandable but inexorably sad.  This book gives her another path, one that is in keeping with her core character, but also tipping a hat to her intelligence and her potential.
Isabel supports the suffragette movement, manages to exact both her revenge and her freedom in a way that down's reflect badly on her, and one can see a path to happiness for her at the end.  Very satisfying.

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