#1

For my book blog i chose to read 'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger. I chose to read this because she was also the author of 'The Time Travelers Wife'. I find Niffenegger's writing style very interesting because while her stories are set in modern times, her Victorian-like writing structure makes you forget until she talks about her "Apple computer". This story looks at a situation from the point of view of everyone involved. Each point of view can change with a new paragraph but it is in no way confusing. One thing i don't understand is why everyone in the book has a very old fashioned name that in no way belongs to the time period. On the back of the book, the summary says that two sisters "Julia and Valentina Poole" are sisters living in Chicago who will receive a large apartment in London from their dead aunt who has just died of cancer. The book opens up with Elspeth Poole's death (the aunt) and her husband Robert's reaction in the hospital. "She felt intense pressure, and then she was floating; the pain was gone and she was looking down from the ceiling at her small wrecked body...Elspeth watched from the ceiling." since this description of Elspeth in a ghost-like state, the Author has not gone back to talking about Elspeth's point of view. The book is also titled "Her Fearful Symmetry" and the first page of the book is a picture of a cemetery so I think there's some mad foreshadowing going on here. Further into the book another woman, Eddie (Edwina) Poole is constantly receiving strange letters that she reads and then burns. her husband sent a private investigator to find out who the letters come from so that he doesn't have to confront his wife. his wife is aware of the private investigator, and her husband is aware that she is aware, but nobody talks about it and the chase continues. Then Niffenegger finally reveals one of the letters, the last letter for good (you can see where this is going). The letters have been form Elspeth the entire time and it was sent by a nurse. It was a goodbye letter saying that no matter what happened, she still loves Eddie. This also informs Eddie that her two daughters, Julia and Valentina Poole, will receive the London estate. I'm going to be completely honest, this book is really slow and not that interesting. its starting to make me wish i picked an actual "sexy beach read" for this assignment. However, im going to try to stick with it. In the future of the book, i would like to know what it was that prompted Elspeth to say "no matter what has happened, i still love you." I also hope this old style London language stops once we get into the point of view of the two Chicago sisters. I cant comment on the characters because they all seem sort of generic so far. Pray for this book.