false 40440 43 Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, <i>The Thirteenth Tale</i>. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly. <p> There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins: <p> <blockquote> "You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."</blockquote> <blockquote>She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."</blockquote> <blockquote>"I am a biographer, I work with facts."</blockquote> <p> The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. <p> Margaret has a story of her own: she was one of conjoined twins and her sister died so that Margaret could live. She feels an otherworldly aura sometimes or a yearning for a part of her that is forever missing. Vida's story involves two wild girls--feral twins (is she one of them?)--who would have been better off being suckled by wolves. Instead, their mother and uncle, involved in things too unsavory to contemplate, combine to neglect them woefully. There's also a governess, a Doctor, a kindly housekeeper, a gardener, and another presence--a very strange presence--which Margaret perceives as a ghost at first. Making obeisance to other great ghost stories, there is a deadly fire, a beautiful old house gone to ruin, and always that presence.... <p> The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and <i>The Thirteenth Tale</i> is finally and convincingly told. <i>--Valerie Ryan</i> 849453 book 12 9 2006 The Thirteenth Tale total:24217|5:7264|4:9878|3:5286|2:1395|1:394| 24217 94874 34879 5997 2 52 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 14:55:55 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 21:23:27 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 21 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 20 21:50:32 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 07 10:00:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 22 false true Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 29 21:44:44 -0800 2007 Fri Oct 24 12:27:52 -0700 2008
I HAVE ALSO BEEN INFORMED THAT THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS IN IT. I GUESS PEOPLE DON'T READ BOOKS JUST FOR THE E...more...]]> 4 17 false false Thu Sep 13 20:29:43 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 20:30:51 -0700 2007 "Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes–characters even–caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with ...more...]]> 5 17 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 05:41:58 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 28 02:29:47 -0800 2007
On P. 138
I take it back. I have been sucked in straight away. Can barely put it down! Whii...more...]]> 1 12 false false Sat Apr 26 17:52:18 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 14:22:07 -0700 2008 Regrettably, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield i...more...]]> 4 9 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 15 10:22:30 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 19 10:10:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 10 false false Tue Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 07 23:07:35 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 03 13:57:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 8 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 07:55:23 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 11:33:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 7 false false Thu Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 01:21:22 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 00:56:42 -0700 2009
Some must be told, there are few which is better to be kept as a secret. You might oh well some of you then might already know my story. It's such a big deal when I let my other half, Ophelia, to tell you our stories. But the thing is, she's my other personality. She...more...]]> 4 6 false false Wed Aug 29 23:00:15 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 17 14:56:08 -0700 2008
I loved ...more...]]> 5 7 false false Mon May 12 03:46:27 -0700 2008 Mon May 12 03:46:42 -0700 2008
This is a fascinating and rich Gothic mystery about a young Englishwoman who is hired to write the biography of a famous, dying author. The author has always kept her past a secret from her millions of fans, and the biographer is about t...more...]]> 5 6 false false Sun Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Feb 28 02:29:11 -0800 2008 Sun Jun 15 13:56:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Wed Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 11:54:17 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 27 20:32:49 -0800 2008 so far i'm LOVING this book...
which is a fitting emotion for what seems to be a symbolic love letter to both books and the bookish...
this text is a sublime combination of fluid prose, wonderful imagery, and finely directed character development...the character of ...more...]]> 2 5 false false Fri Jul 11 00:51:37 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 02 17:19:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Fri Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 17 06:35:47 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 05 00:38:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Wed Feb 06 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 18:18:29 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 10:33:55 -0800 2008 I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. A fantastic ending that is complete. There are several wonderful lines from this book, but the on that sticks out to me this morning is a line about how when a reader finishes a book she often thinks of the other characters and what hap...more...]]> 3 4 false true Sun Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 02 06:03:45 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 06 19:10:11 -0800 2008
Don't get me wrong, its an interesting book. It plays on a love of books in its reader, as well as a love of classic British countryside dramas (Bronte, Austen,...etc). It goes for an authentic feel...more...]]> 3 3 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 20:59:39 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 04 21:02:55 -0700 2007 Charles Dickens—but her past is entirely unknown; she gives one interview per year and always lies. Then, out of the blue, she hires bookstore clerk and amateur biographer Margaret Lea to take down her life story. The majority of the novel compri...more...]]> 4 5 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 17:42:05 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 25 10:25:19 -0800 2009 more...]]>