Book Details
Paperback
Pages: 438
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Published: 2010
Language: English
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9080 1
Book Review
This is one of those books where the world seems to be conspiring to make sure that you read it. I first heard about the book when I read a review of it on someone's blog. They really loved it, and I thought it sounded really interesting. A debut novel by an Australian author, contemporary, utilising world events as part of the plot - sounded really good. Then I added it to my wish list but didn't rush out to buy it (I don't generally buy new books). Then I was mucking around on the Internet one day and discovered that a local bookshop runs a monthly book club, and the next book they were looking at was The Legacy. A local book club looking at a book that I wanted to read - I couldn't pass it up. So, I purchased the book and here I am writing the review.
The back cover:
What has happened to Ingrid? Beautiful Ingrid inherits a fortune and leaves Australia, and her friends, and Ralph who loves her, to marry Gil Grey and set up home amid the New York art world. There she becomes the stepmother to Gil's teenage artist daughter Fleur, a former child prodigy, and studies ancient curse scrolls at Columbia University. But at 9am on September 11, 2001, she has an appointment downtown. And is never seen again. Or is she? Searching for clues about Ingrid's life a year later, her friend Julia uncovers only further layers of mystery and deception.
I wish I could say that the world conspired to bring me an amazing book, but I can't. Although there were some things that I liked about this book, there were so many things that I didn't. Having said that, after having been to the book club and discussing this book with other readers and the author herself, I feel a lot better about the book than I did beforehand. I appreciated the book a lot more knowing what the authors intention was, even if I don't think it was executed very well.
Let me start with the things that I didn't like first. I didn't enjoy the writing style. At the book club, the author said that she was trying to write in the hard-boiled style. This style is supposed to be very staccato and is used to build tension. Having heard her say that I understand the theory behind the style of writing, but I still don't think it was executed very well.
It was full of clunky sentences like: "Fleur knocked on my door and I must have been asleep because it seemed to wake me". Does this sentence really irritate anyone other than me? When chapters came to an end there was often a scene that was clearly written to build suspense, but just seemed completely out of place. For example, after Julia has been looking at handwriting sentences with one of the characters who becomes involved in the story, there is a description of Julie getting off the train and walking home, very detailed and clearly supposed to have some purpose - but what? I couldn't figure it out. And so many chapters finished like that.
It was full of clunky sentences like: "Fleur knocked on my door and I must have been asleep because it seemed to wake me". Does this sentence really irritate anyone other than me? When chapters came to an end there was often a scene that was clearly written to build suspense, but just seemed completely out of place. For example, after Julia has been looking at handwriting sentences with one of the characters who becomes involved in the story, there is a description of Julie getting off the train and walking home, very detailed and clearly supposed to have some purpose - but what? I couldn't figure it out. And so many chapters finished like that.
Another complaint was the way in which the characters were formed - it felt a lot like you barely got to know any of them, and I am relieved that it seemed like a lot of other people at the book club felt similarly. Ingrid is a fairly shadowy character, but I don't mind that all. She is supposed to be. That is part of the mystery. I would, however, have liked to get to know the other characters a little more, especially Julia and Ralph. The novel didn't take the reader very deep into the characters at all, and that is really important to my enjoyment of the book. It meant that I didn't really care about the characters, I felt like I was skimming through the book because I wasn't getting below the surface of anyone.
There was also this sense of mystery that was created around certain characters that I thought had something to do with the plot (I am not going to tell you which characters I am talking about in case you read the book). I kept waiting to find out the explanation for their behaviour, but at the end my expectations were not fulfilled - there was no explanation provided. I asked the author about this at the book club, and her explanation was essentially that she was creating mystery around these two characters for no other purpose than to create a feeling of suspense in general. She did go a little deeper into an explanation, but I have to admit that I was disappointed - you can't create suspense around characters just for the sake of it - there has to be some purpose.
The author gave a few explanations for things that happened in the book that I didn't quite accept. The main one that I am the most disappointed in is around the ending of the book, which I can't really talk about because it would totally spoil the end of the book.
The author gave a few explanations for things that happened in the book that I didn't quite accept. The main one that I am the most disappointed in is around the ending of the book, which I can't really talk about because it would totally spoil the end of the book.
The book is based on The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, which I didn't actually realise until after I had read the book. Having been to the book club listened to the author discuss her motivation behind basing a book upon a classic and how she did it, I appreciated the book a little more than I had beforehand. I didn't like that some of the characters had the same name as the characters in James' novel and some didn't, but I still think that it some ways it was a clever way to rewrite a classic.
I am disappointed in the ending to The Legacy as well. The author shared that she had a different, more ambiguous ending that she discarded. I am glad she discarded something more ambiguous than the ending that she actually used. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't say much else about the end, except that it just didn't cut it for me.
Ah, there are so many things that I could talk about, but I am sick of going on about the negatives. The best thing about this book is that it entirely sucks you in from about the halfway mark. I just wanted to keep reading and I couldn't put it down. Tranter does well at creating that tension. It's just a shame that for me it felt like it led nowhere.
If you have read this book - I would love to know what you think. Better yet, if you have reviewed it, please leave a link to your review for me to read.
Summary
What kind of read is it?
A tense read.
Do I recommend this book?
Not really to be honest. It was good, but for me the negatives far outweighed the positives.
Do I recommend that you buy this book?
Absolutely not.
Star Rating
4 / 8
Alright, but I wouldn't recommend it.
4 / 8
Alright, but I wouldn't recommend it.
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