Declare Books To The Hand That First Held Mine

Original Title: The Hand That First Held Mine
ISBN: 0547330790 (ISBN13: 9780547330792)
Edition Language: English
Setting: London, England(United Kingdom)
Literary Awards: Costa Book Award for Novel (2010)
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The Hand That First Held Mine Hardcover | Pages: 341 pages
Rating: 3.91 | 13647 Users | 1468 Reviews

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Title:The Hand That First Held Mine
Author:Maggie O'Farrell
Book Format:Hardcover
Book Edition:Special Edition
Pages:Pages: 341 pages
Published:April 12th 2010 by Houghton Mifflin (first published April 12th 2009)
Categories:Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Contemporary. European Literature. British Literature

Explanation In Favor Of Books The Hand That First Held Mine

A spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood.

Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself.

Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who wears duck-egg blue ties and introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives--all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own.

Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place.

As Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories-- these two women-- something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

Here Maggie O'Farrell brings us a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. Like her acclaimed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, it is a "breathtaking, heart-breaking creation." (The Washington Post Book World) and it is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.

Rating Appertaining To Books The Hand That First Held Mine
Ratings: 3.91 From 13647 Users | 1468 Reviews

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The book follows two stories. The first one is about Lexie Sinclair, a young girl in the 1950s who decides to leave her family and follow the intriguing Innes Kent to London where she starts a career in journalism. The second is about Elina and Ted, whose child is born, and where we see the difficulty of motherhood for Elina and the progressive appearance of Ted's memories about his own childhood. The book is an ode to family, love and life.I wasn't sure what to expect about this book, I read it

* Some spoilers *This book didn't have too much in the way of plot, and the little plot that it did have was pretty silly (view spoiler)[ Margot clinging onto a childhood obsession with her father's girlfriend throughout her life - to the extent of stealing the man she thought Lexie loved, and then stealing her baby too - was really pushing the limits of believable (hide spoiler)] but I felt that Maggie O'Farrell's writing redeemed much of that.In fact, apparently when I first finished this

This book is so hard to quantify with stars, because although I hated it for the majority, I have to admit that there were definite moments of genius. I can recognize what she was attempting here theres a slow, poetic, visual quality to the writing that sometimes succeeds. I can appreciate this type of novel (huge Michael Cunningham fan here) when its done with substantial emotion and poignancy and when the words are stunning enough in themselves to negate the absolute need for a concrete plot.

The Hand That First Held Mine is Maggie OFarrells fifth novel. Two stories are told in parallel: Lexie Sinclair quits Devon for London when the charismatic Innes Kent arrives on her doorstep, and starts her life at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene; Elina and Ted are coming to terms with the changes wrought in their present-day lives by the birth of their son. As we follow lives separated by fifty years, wondering how they might be connected, we learn that Ted has been having flashes of

Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen. The garden is empty; the patio deserted, save for some pots with geraniums and delphiniums shuddering in the wind. A bench stands on the lawn, two chairs politely facing away from it. A bicycle is propped up against the house but its pedals are

Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen. A graveled path curves towards the front door of the house. On the washing-line, petticoats and vests, socks and stays, nappies and handkerchiefs snap and writhe in the breeze. A radio can be heard from somewhere, one of the neighbouring houses

This novel was a mixed bag for me. At time, the writing is rather wonderful, indeed it would be worth the read to study and enjoy the first chapter alone, because therein lies the writer Maggie OFarrell at her best. The scene in Soho is masterful, and again I would say worth picking up just to read this section. Unfortunately, the writing style becomes tiresome the further into the narrative you go, perhaps because the characters never quite live up to what the reader might have expected of