[IWJ]≫ PDF Free The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwright 9780747570349 Books

The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwright 9780747570349 Books

Download As PDF : The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwright 9780747570349 Books

The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwright 9780747570349 Books

Some infelicities in Cartwright's ear for unfamiliar dialects (the speech of the young and the speech of Americans are awkwardly and rather inaccurately rendered by this late-middle-aged English author) do little to mar the experience of reading this chronicle of an unraveling family trying to regroup after a series of crises. Really a fantastic novel.


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The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwright 9780747570349 Books Reviews

This book has some fine qualities, and some aspects which may well put some readers off. The fine qualities first some arresting images; excellent and sometimes strikingly-phrased descriptions of places - the Cornish coastal village, parts of the United States, different parts of London. The characters and their relationship to each other come alive, and they are given interesting interior thought processes. The author conveys detailed knowledge over quite a range of subjects Tiffany stained glass, the filming commercial advertisement, and botany among them.

Possibly off-putting if you want the story to move along in a chronological manner (but why should it? Lots of novels don't), you may be disappointed there are a lot of stream-of-consciousness digressions (some of them philosophical, especially about complex moral issues) and disjointed memories which interrupt the narrative, and prevent it from being chronological. The story is meandering and slow-moving, and is less about development than about the situations in which the five principal characters find themselves crusty Charles Judd, seriously disorientated by having lost his job in London and by his favourite child having been imprisoned in the United States, charged with having been an accessory in an art theft; his matronly wife Daphne, put-upon but not put out and more than coping; their much-loved daughter Ju-Ju (Juliet) emerging from the experience of two years in prison; her brother Charlie, the "rock" in the family, who runs a few profitable internet sites selling socks (sock-it-to-me.com) and other clothing he is collecting Ju-Ju on her release and bringing her slowly back so as to give her time to adjust to normal life again; and the other daughter, Sophie, who has been leading a rackety life in the London advertising world. The central theme - though there are many sub-plots - is about Ju-Ju's slow return and how this is expected to impact on the rest of the family. They all expect a promise of happiness.

Cartwright is certainly a gifted writer, and a very many-sided one this book is entirely different from his `The Song Before it is Sung' (see my review).
It took a couple of chapters to get into it, but was a good read. Families can be very dynamic and this family is. They stick together and help one another.
Some infelicities in Cartwright's ear for unfamiliar dialects (the speech of the young and the speech of Americans are awkwardly and rather inaccurately rendered by this late-middle-aged English author) do little to mar the experience of reading this chronicle of an unraveling family trying to regroup after a series of crises. Really a fantastic novel.