Maggie O'Farrell has a singular knack for sensing the magnetic fields that push and pull people in love, and in The Hand That First Held Mineread full description
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Feb 11, 2011
Teresa
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Oh no, another favourite author releasing a new title – cue the sickening feelings of anxiety when I settle into the story , wondering if it will meet my expectations but any fears are quickly assuaged as I become immersed in this, Maggie O’ Farrell’s fifth novel. I devoured it in a few sittings – one of those books you are eager to embrace but loath to leave.
Like it’s predecessor, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, there is a cleverly woven dual narrative, one set in the 1950s/1960 More...
Like it’s predecessor, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, there is a cleverly woven dual narrative, one set in the 1950s/1960 More...
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Feb 04, 2011
Bee
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Although choosing a favourite author is tough, when forced to do so I would more often than not, answer with Maggie O'Farrell as mine. I find her style of writing beautiful, almost melodic and so incredibley descriptive and evocative of the senses that you really feel like you step into the world of the characters whilst reading.
However, this was based on her first three books, and I have to say that despite being SO excited for the release of 'The Vanishing Act of Esme May' (only book More...
However, this was based on her first three books, and I have to say that despite being SO excited for the release of 'The Vanishing Act of Esme May' (only book More...
Feb 07, 2012
Georgina
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 26, 2012
Lori
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The plot was interesting, but it moved too slowly for me. More than 100 pages in, and it was still not clear how the two different story lines were related.
The author also spends a lot of time on the descriptions of the characters' surroundings, which I found annoying. They were too long, often unnecessary, and they kept the story from progressing. (Do I really need to know every time the baby arches his back to look up at the ceiling? That there was pannini bread on the floor of More...
The author also spends a lot of time on the descriptions of the characters' surroundings, which I found annoying. They were too long, often unnecessary, and they kept the story from progressing. (Do I really need to know every time the baby arches his back to look up at the ceiling? That there was pannini bread on the floor of More...
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Aug 02, 2011
After having read “After You’d Gone” very recently, I looked forward to reading another novel by Maggie O’Farrell. “The Hand That First Held Mine” is her fifth book, and the winner of The Costa Novel Award, and as a friend lent it to me, it was the next O’Farrell experience for me.
This novel tells the parallel stories of Lexie Sinclair a young woman in post-war England, and Elina and Ted, new parents struggling to get back on their feet after the traumatic birth of their first child.
The two st More...
This novel tells the parallel stories of Lexie Sinclair a young woman in post-war England, and Elina and Ted, new parents struggling to get back on their feet after the traumatic birth of their first child.
The two st More...
Jan 07, 2012
Sibyl
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I always find Maggie O'Farrell's books highly readable.
But this one seemed less than the sum of its parts. Maybe it's that I recognised patterns that were familiar from her earlier novels. People fall instantly and passionately in love. But rather than maturing into couples who bicker about the washing up, someone inevitably dies - so that there can be an equally passionate period of mourning.
Other - newer - themes were oddly unsatifying. Elina, one of the novel's two hero More...
But this one seemed less than the sum of its parts. Maybe it's that I recognised patterns that were familiar from her earlier novels. People fall instantly and passionately in love. But rather than maturing into couples who bicker about the washing up, someone inevitably dies - so that there can be an equally passionate period of mourning.
Other - newer - themes were oddly unsatifying. Elina, one of the novel's two hero More...
Jan 06, 2012
Shweta's Book Journal
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This book had a very gripping plot. There were two stories both very interesting moving along side each other in different time periods. In the beginning for quite a long time I tried to find some connection between them but they had nothing in common.Nothing that I could see. I think this is what kept me puzzled and reading until I got completely immersed in both the stories and was hell bent on finding where all this lead. Frankly speaking it moved me on many levels.
First and foremos More...
First and foremos More...
Oct 21, 2011
Diana
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I probably liked this as much as I did because it deals with the London art world of the mid-20th century, an area of interest for me. The book weaves together two stories – one set in present-day London involving a new mother, Elina, and her partner Ted and their young baby, and a second about a young woman named Lexie who moves to London from the countryside after the war and finds love and a career. The contemporary story did much less for me, although O'Farrell captures well the sense of tim
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Oct 10, 2011
Laurel
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Sound recording narrated by Anne Flosnik. This was a very interesting dual-timeframe story. The author's prose evokes detailed images. I loved many of her descriptions, especially the minutiae of motion. It was like reading a film or a screen play, if that makes sense. It fits the story, since Ted is a film editor. Things move back and forth in time, sometimes you get a kind of slow-motion sequence, scenes cut back and forth and somehow all ends up as a satisfying whole. I will admit that I expe
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Sep 30, 2011
Susan
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It’s not often I really love a book enjoy to want to re-read it. There are many fantastic books out there I want to read; re-reading is way down on my priorities. However, I’ll definitely re-read this book. It’s fantastic and beautifully written.
Starting in Devon, it begins with Lexie Sinclair, going from her quaint little life there, following the intriguing Inness Kent to London. Then carries on with the bohemian lifestyle she lived in the 1950’s in London where she starts a career in More...
Starting in Devon, it begins with Lexie Sinclair, going from her quaint little life there, following the intriguing Inness Kent to London. Then carries on with the bohemian lifestyle she lived in the 1950’s in London where she starts a career in More...
Jul 09, 2011
Brooke
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Wow! What a perfect and jarring book to read right now. O'Farrell's novel follows two stories: present day Elina and Ted and their newborn and Lexie, a writer living in artistic Soho London after WWII.
Because I have a newborn of my own, it was eerie to be up in the middle of the night, feeding my own baby and reading about exhausted Elina, up in the middle of the night, feeding her baby. O'Farrell's successfully captures that blurry, anxious, sleepless feeling that dominates th More...
Because I have a newborn of my own, it was eerie to be up in the middle of the night, feeding my own baby and reading about exhausted Elina, up in the middle of the night, feeding her baby. O'Farrell's successfully captures that blurry, anxious, sleepless feeling that dominates th More...
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May 10, 2011
Katie
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Genre: Fiction
Award: Costa Award
Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary: The Hand That First Held Mine follows two stories. The first of Lexie Sinclair, a young girl who runs away from boring life in the country to post-war London where she holds her ground as a strong, admirable journalist. She takes on this adventure with Innes Kent. Her love story with Innes is intense and their intellectual connection is one to dream about.
The second of a modern day couple, Elina and Te More...
Award: Costa Award
Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary: The Hand That First Held Mine follows two stories. The first of Lexie Sinclair, a young girl who runs away from boring life in the country to post-war London where she holds her ground as a strong, admirable journalist. She takes on this adventure with Innes Kent. Her love story with Innes is intense and their intellectual connection is one to dream about.
The second of a modern day couple, Elina and Te More...
Apr 17, 2011
Lauren
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My first Maggie O'Farrell read. Seems to be a good middle ground between literary fiction and chick lit.
Two stories, the first of Lexie who runs away from her dull countryside family home at 21 for the exciting city life, arriving in post-war London. She is head strong and passionate and obsessive, but admirable and honest and heartbreaking. She is willful and stands her ground in a male dominated society, works at a magazine and later a newspaper, first female staff writer. Tragic More...
Two stories, the first of Lexie who runs away from her dull countryside family home at 21 for the exciting city life, arriving in post-war London. She is head strong and passionate and obsessive, but admirable and honest and heartbreaking. She is willful and stands her ground in a male dominated society, works at a magazine and later a newspaper, first female staff writer. Tragic More...
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Apr 15, 2011
Yvann
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Having seen this reviewed all over the blogosphere, I had to try it out for myself. It suffered a little for being the story of two generations, set in London in the 1960s and 1990s/2000s – just like The Last Letter From Your Lover, which I read immediately before it.
I found some parts of this really quite uncomfortable, particularly the evident trauma of birth and new motherhood on Elina and the obvious doom lurking around Lexie and Innes’ relationship. However, if anything that made More...
I found some parts of this really quite uncomfortable, particularly the evident trauma of birth and new motherhood on Elina and the obvious doom lurking around Lexie and Innes’ relationship. However, if anything that made More...
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Apr 09, 2011
Caroline
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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, More...
I wasn't sure what to expect about this book, More...
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Mar 22, 2011
Laura
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A very long time ago I read After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell and I still remember the force of that very tragic and moving story, the beauty of the descriptions of the process of falling in love and staying together. With The Hand That First Held Mine I find that this author is again very strong in her depictions of modern, urban daily life (the coffee shops, the houses, the parks) and of the intimacy in a couple.
The novel is built as a series of yuxtapositions telling us the life of t More...
The novel is built as a series of yuxtapositions telling us the life of t More...
Mar 12, 2011
Jules
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I liked but didn’t love this book despite its many blinding cover reviews and recommendations and whilst I appreciated the multi-layered dual-approach timelines coming together (in the end), it took me a while to find links between the past/present narratives that O’Farrell creates. After reading previous reviews, it appears to me that you can be a mega-fan of O’Farrell or that you can find her writing ‘simply ok’. Personally, I think she is a somewhat ‘neat’ writer but her plots (if this book i
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Mar 04, 2011
Emma
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I thought this was a truly beautiful book that will continue to play on my mind in the days to come. As a mother with two young children, I thought it was a realistic portrait of motherhood and how our relationship with our mother and our children can have far-reaching consequences - good and bad - over the years.
I particularly identified with Elina's experience of a traumatic c-section and the early days of motherhood. Having experienced much the same as this character, I was tran More...
I particularly identified with Elina's experience of a traumatic c-section and the early days of motherhood. Having experienced much the same as this character, I was tran More...
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Feb 19, 2011
Kiwiflora
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A beautifully told and poignant story of the universal themes of love - romantic love, marriage and motherhood.
In the early 1950s, 21 year old Lexie Sinclair is desperate to escape her boring, house bound life in the country lanes of Devon. Out of the blue appears the divine Innes Kent. Naturally they fall instantly in love, and he whisks her off to a new exiting life in London. Which for a time it is, then naturally things start to unravel.
Running parallel to the lives of More...
In the early 1950s, 21 year old Lexie Sinclair is desperate to escape her boring, house bound life in the country lanes of Devon. Out of the blue appears the divine Innes Kent. Naturally they fall instantly in love, and he whisks her off to a new exiting life in London. Which for a time it is, then naturally things start to unravel.
Running parallel to the lives of More...
Jan 25, 2011
Fleur
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“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 s
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Dec 05, 2010
Maya
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I read through this book, quickly, almost headlong, with a few stutters.
I find that ever since the birth of the first of my children, my ability to disconnect sufficiently from certain books enough to enjoy them has been difficult: in other words, anything involving hazards to small children, death, separation..shall I go on? has been severely compromised. I hope this doesn't go on forever: my current state of mind never would have allowed me to experience Jane Eyre, say, or Oliver Twist.
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I find that ever since the birth of the first of my children, my ability to disconnect sufficiently from certain books enough to enjoy them has been difficult: in other words, anything involving hazards to small children, death, separation..shall I go on? has been severely compromised. I hope this doesn't go on forever: my current state of mind never would have allowed me to experience Jane Eyre, say, or Oliver Twist.
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Nov 12, 2010
Diane
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I read Maggie O'Farrell's novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox a few years back and found it a haunting story. I looked forward to reading her next book, The Hand That First Held Mine.
It's not a book that grabbed me right away, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the resolution of the story was heartbreaking. O'Farrell expertly weaves two stories together, and I didn't know where she going with it until about three quarters of the way through, and then I was devastated.
The More...
It's not a book that grabbed me right away, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the resolution of the story was heartbreaking. O'Farrell expertly weaves two stories together, and I didn't know where she going with it until about three quarters of the way through, and then I was devastated.
The More...
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Sep 30, 2010
Calvin
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Maggie O’Farrell’s fifth novel is a typically O’Farrell-esque relationships-based psychological drama, depicting the lives of two separate couples some fifty years apart. The drama progresses steadily within the two stories more or less in parallel, and O’Farrell manages extremely successfully to switch between the two, aided by the use of sound, well-researched period detail, such that the atmosphere in both is convincingly distinct. (The earlier-set story appears to this indirectly-informed ob
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Sep 13, 2010
Doreen
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Another of the books told in alternating chapers about two different time periods, and we gradually learn how the two stories converge. I was put off at first by that style, since I've read so many of them recently, but very quickly the story and the characters grabbed me. Of the two stories, the one I found more engaging was the story of Lexie, who in the early 1950's left her rural Devon home and large family for London after meeting an exciting, exotic flirt Innes Kent whose car broke down ne
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Aug 24, 2010
Denise
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The Hand That First Held Mine starts with Lexie Sinclair, raised in a wealthy, country family, she flees to postwar London looking for excitement and stimulation. She takes up with Innes, an older man who owns and edits a magazine. As a reporter she develops into a fascinating woman, strong and opinionated, but with a tender connection to Innes.
Switch to modern day and we meet Elina and Ted, a young couple who have just had a baby through a traumatic birth. As a new father Ted begin More...
Switch to modern day and we meet Elina and Ted, a young couple who have just had a baby through a traumatic birth. As a new father Ted begin More...
Jul 26, 2010
Agatha
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British novel, juxtaposing two apparently unrelated women's lives: one in 1950s, one at present time. 1950s lady experiences mid-century London Soho bohemia after leaving small town Dorset to work at an emerging arts magazine, "Elsewhere." Present time lady is a Finnish artist living in London who just had her first baby after a very traumatic birth episode. Reader flashes back and forth b/w the two ladies' stories. Because I could tell that the two stories would link up, and I wa
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Jul 13, 2010
Felice
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What a thrillingly (Is that a word?) expert writer O'Farrell is. Every word is a perfect choice and not one is wasted. Her novels are all about relationships. That sounds very boring and potentially awful but don't worry. To say that O'Farrell writes about relationships is like saying Fred Astaire can dance. You get a starting point but you actually have no idea of the talent, seemingly effortless skill and artistry that they bring to the job.
The Hand That First Held Mine cover More...
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Jun 08, 2010
Denise
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Secrets and lies..., April 18, 2010
By Denise "DC" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hand That First Held Mine (Hardcover)
I read all the 5 star reviews of this book and wondered, "What book were these people reading?" because it sure was not the same one that I struggled through over a week or two. Typically I read a book in a single evening, but this one seemed to drag on and on. I couldn't get into it.
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Apr 30, 2010
Cynthia
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A young yet successful artist immigrates to England from Finland, falls in love and has a baby with her English landlord. It's a difficult birth and both Elin and Ted are reeling from its aftermath. Elin feels alone and confused by Ted's isolating behavior. Ted is just as lost by his behavior. Seeing Elin almost bleed out after her C-section has triggered fear and old remembrances that he can't quite hold onto keep coming unburied yet he can't seem to hold onto the connections so he plunges even
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Jan 10, 2012
Laurie
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This book is a gem. I'm so glad I read it and I know I'll read it again.
It centres on motherhood and it depicts it realistically. We get to see 3 mothers coming to grasp with becoming a mum. I like the fact that one of Elina's symptoms of this transformation is that she feels she smells different. She became a mum, she became another person.
Elina has had a difficult birth and her experience rang so mmany bells that I couldn't have read this book sooner without having to More...
It centres on motherhood and it depicts it realistically. We get to see 3 mothers coming to grasp with becoming a mum. I like the fact that one of Elina's symptoms of this transformation is that she feels she smells different. She became a mum, she became another person.
Elina has had a difficult birth and her experience rang so mmany bells that I couldn't have read this book sooner without having to More...
