Download THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX fb2, epub

by M O'Farrell

ISBN: 0755308441
Author: M O'Farrell
Language: English
Publisher: Headline Review; Reprint edition (2007)
Pages: 288
Category: Women's Fiction
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.2
Votes: 262
Size Fb2: 1550 kb
Size ePub: 1540 kb
Size Djvu: 1558 kb
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M O'Farrell Women's Fiction English

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. This is a work of fiction.

Having now read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, I see that O’Farrell has incredible talent. The way Maggie O Farrell writes is just exquisite, so beautifully descriptive that I was carried away and felt totally drawn into the story and life of Esme Lennox. Her writing is phenomenal and her perspective on people, relationships and life is scary insightful. Iris finds out that she has a great aunt - Esme - she never knew existed who has been living in a psychiatric hospital for 60 years. The character development is perfect and sometimes in a book you come across a character that you completely fall in love with and I fell in love with the character of Esme.

I don’t like to be influenced by others in what I consider to be a personal experience

I don’t like to be influenced by others in what I consider to be a personal experience. Did you know? The events in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox are based on a real British policy which deinstitutionalized thousands of psychiatric patients beginning in 1990.

This book is told through the eyes of Esme Lennox, who has been in an asylum for over 60 years, her older sister .

This book is told through the eyes of Esme Lennox, who has been in an asylum for over 60 years, her older sister Kitty, who is slipping away due to Alzheimer's, and Iris. Iris is Kitty's granddaughter and is shocked to learn that Kitty had a sister. While growing up, Iris always thought that Kitty was an "only. The asylum housing Esme is closing and Iris is contacted as the person responsible for Esme's care. To me, Esme was a child who loved life and did not enjoy the rules that applied.

I will not reveal the outcome. Beneath the cool Edwardian detail of this elegantly written book lie the horrors of a Gothic novel

It is as if O'Farrell is rewriting the story of The Secret Garden's heroine had she come home to maternal hatred and loneliness and been refused the chance to learn. Esme becomes odd and apart, and starts having hallucinations. I will not reveal the outcome. Beneath the cool Edwardian detail of this elegantly written book lie the horrors of a Gothic novel. Scottish propriety conceals rape and murder, torture, hypocrisy and violent sex.

Esme has been labeled harmless-sane enough to coexist with the rest of. .I really enjoyed this book.

Esme has been labeled harmless-sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit? A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page. For a comparatively short book, there was a lot woven into this story. There is, of course, first and foremost Esme's story but there is also the life that Iris leads and.

Mad women have always interested me,' says Maggie OFarrell, the author of Julys Daily Mail Book Club choice, The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox. This story has been brewing in my brain for at least 15 years. JULY: The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. Last updated at 15:51 03 July 2007. She's known for her gripping yarns, so it's no surprise that Maggie O'Farrell's latest book – about a woman who is locked up in a lunatic asylum – is this month's Daily Mail Book choice.

In her fourth novel, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, the British author Maggie O’Farrell takes the notion of the loony relative and turns it on its head

In her fourth novel, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, the British author Maggie O’Farrell takes the notion of the loony relative and turns it on its head. What if, against all the odds, the apparently batty aunt might actually be normal and everybody else seems to be nuts? One morning in Edinburgh, Iris Lockhart gets a phone call asking her to retrieve her great-aunt from the insane asylum where she has spent the last 60 years. The institution is closing down, and Iris is listed as the person to contact about the old woman’s affairs

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Comments:

Bundis

I'd probably give this book three and a half stars. It's not a great literary masterpiece but it's a good story. I don't normally like stories that jump back and forth in time but it worked for me here. If I'm going to be critical I would say it was strange that someone who 'needed' to be in an institution for the best part of 60 years could be let out into the community just because it was closing down. Equally Esme appeared to have no anxieties or be phased by the modern world once she stepped out of the door. The story is tragic and real. I think many women ended up in mental institutions for various reasons: because they had a baby out of wedlock, had post natal depression, were outspoken or 'difficult to manage' by their husbands. Once inside on medication they had very little chance of ever being normal again. Esme was outspoken and unusual for her time and part of me wished she had conformed a little for her own sake. That aside I think she did have mild issues that would have required some mental support had she been born in modern times.I was surprised at the ending, I didn't see that coming. I thought Esme would have been grateful for the actions of her sister (it seemed a far kinder option to the alternative given the circumstances). The concurrent theme of Iris and the relationship with her step-brother was unnecessary and did nothing for this story.

Sadaron above the Gods

A friend recommended this book to me, and I knew very little about it, other than various voices tell the story over multiple periods of time.

This book is told through the eyes of Esme Lennox, who has been in an asylum for over 60 years, her older sister Kitty, who is slipping away due to Alzheimer's, and Iris. Iris is Kitty's granddaughter and is shocked to learn that Kitty had a sister. While growing up, Iris always thought that Kitty was an "only." The asylum housing Esme is closing and Iris is contacted as the person responsible for Esme's care.

O'Farrell's uses language the way a painter applies paint to a canvas. To me, Esme was a child who loved life and did not enjoy the rules that applied to a girl from a well-bred family. She was her own person, and that ended up causing trouble and heartbreak.

The men in Iris' life also bring her own personal issues to the forefront. The story unfolds and folds back upon itself until it all makes sense. There are hints throughout that other issues are at play, and one must read carefully to see them all.

I don't like to give spoilers, so am not willing to give more plot points. I do say that this is one book that hovered over me for days after I finished reading it. It was bittersweet and heart breaking in so many ways, but I know I will read it again.

Ferri - My name

I liked this book, which concerns itself with mental illness, family relations, self image, independence, and bullying at school. It is the story of two sisters and of of a young woman who suddenly finds she has a great aunt who she has never heard of, a "brother" who is not a blood relation, and a lying lover. In this story beware, no one is who they appear to be. I liked it. I liked the way different character's thoughts and stories intermingled. It is a good read for any student of human nature.

Juce

I don't normally pay much attention to the accolades in the first pages of pocket books, but this one opens so splendidly that I wanted to share it with you: the Boston Globe called the author `a feminist avenging angel who wields the modern Gothic like a gleaming sword'.
The book was recommended to me (and others) by more than one amazon friend, so I went for it and did not regret it. Normally my liking or disliking of a book is determined first and foremost by the language, i.e. the `style', the words, the sentences, the verbal images, etc. You know. On that basis, O'Farrell won me over quickly. She might be among the writers who could recite me a telephone book and keep me interested.
The story, the content, the subject are often secondary for me. Of course a well written book about absolutely nothing is of limited attraction, though it will surely find a market. An interesting subject that is badly written about will have lost me quickly. I will look for another source or just give up on books and go to the net. O'Farrell writes well about a high interest story.

Her story could be told in a dozen different ways, and some of those would make it trivial, trashy, boring, or sensationalist. It is quite sensational, actually: an old woman is released from a mental asylum after 60 years, because the place shuts down. She is released to a grandniece who never knew that her grandmother had a sister. The woman, the Esme of the title, lives in the past, which she revisits in bits and pieces of memory, like film scenes, but she is also awake to the here and now.
The story is set in Scotland, with a past in India and present tentacles (family) in Australia. It was published in 2006. It is hard to believe that such cases could happen, but the author is positive about it. What has poor Esme done? When she was sixteen, she had unusual opinions and ideas, and she was in the way of an elder sister about boys, and had too much of an own mind for her parents' taste anyway. Was it really so easy to get rid of someone?

The narrator takes multiple standpoints: in the present time with either the grandniece (Iris) or with Esme; in the past with either Esme or her sister Kitty (Iris' now demented grandmother). The narrative complexity is not over-done, O'Farrell is not out to confuse you. Her style and narrative structure have turned a potentially pulpy story into an excellent concise thriller. Its main strength is its courage to not explain everything (which is frequently the main mistake of bad writers).