hmmmm… a very unsatisfying book… I like happily ever afters, and nobody quite had a happily ever after…

Easy characters = Martin and Marijke… after 25 years of worsening OCD, Marijke leaves him for Amsterdam… And mostly we see from Martin’s point of view – how he increasingly tries to control his environment with his washing & counting, etc… and yet their love is quite evident… in how he thinks of her, and understands… and how she works at making a new life, but is still connected… a year after she leaves, on her birthday, they have an interesting birthday dinner where she goes to a restaurant with her cell, and they talk on the phone as if they are dining together… Julia, who befriends Martin, gives him medicine, in the guise of vitamins (though he is not fooled, but want s to do this so that he can go to Amsterdam)… and he does get better, and ultimately joins his wife …

Edie & Elspeth… twins… Elspeth was more insecure, and when she thought her fiancé was interested in her sister, she convinced her sister to trade places and test him… and when Elspeth, as Edie, gains his attention (and yes, he knew, but he played along because it angered him)… but in a drunken night has sex with Edie… and she gets pregnant… Elspeth marries him (using Edie’s name), but sends pregnant Edie home with him to have the babies, and then when the babies are 4 months old, they trade places again, and Elspeth (as Edie) raises the babies, but will not speak to the real Edie again… their story lines ends on the plane back to america after Valentina’s funeral, when dad calls his wife Elspeth… because he in fact knew it all along… and Elspeth cries for the 1st time in 20+ years… and they seem to have peace.

Edie, as Elspeth, has a lover (who is younger) Robert… they love deeply, and he tenderly cares for her as she dies… and can’t let go once she is gone… There’s a touching scene, the last day before the twins come to live in the flat, where he gathers her things, and masturbates on her bed, while she (as a ghost) watches… when she touches him, he just feels cold – and he struggles in trying to decide if her ghost is there or not.

When Edie (as Elspeth) dies of leukemia, she wills her London flat to her daughters… saying they must live in the flat for a year, and that their parents may not go into the flat… Julia and Valentina come to London… They are just 21, and Julia has been subtly controlling Valentina to stay her constant companion… Valentina tries to make plans for her own life, but Julia cannot tolerate it…

Edie (Elspeth) slowly becomes self aware in her flat… and contacts Robert, Julia & Valentina… they communicate with oijia board and psychic writing… and Valentina can see her…

And when Edie, when playing with the kitten, scoops his soul out, and returns it to the body, Valentina comes up with a plan to separate from Julia…

And this is where the story falls apart for me… there are many ways for Valentina to accomplish her goals, but she chooses suicide…. And involves Robert & Edie… she wants her body restored to her soul after her funeral… with Robert preserving the body and bringing it to the apartment, and Edie holding onto her soul and placing it back into the body… ewwww… Robert (and Edie) are quite conflicted with it… but do so…. And when it is time for the soul to be returned, it doesn’t work… the soul is not self aware enough… so Edie decides to put her soul into the body… and though she doesn't consciously admit to it, there are clues that she knew this is the only way it could end up... she knew she would get a body again... her own, young body... and she & Robert try to make a go of it, they move, she has a baby, he finishes his dissertation… but Robert disconnects, and cannot live with what was done to Valentina… and leaves without a word (unsatisfactory… what happens to him?)

Valentina and Julia reconnect in the flat, as Valentina gains form… and Julia starts to date Martin’s son… and Julia helps Valentina to leave the apartment, to join the ghosts in the cemetery next door, where Valentina is free and happy…. Hmmm… unsatisfactory… she dies, they disconnect… and this time when Valentina gains her freedom, Julia is okay? Hmmmm

It wasn’t just that not everyone has a happily ever after story… and it’s not just that it isn’t reasonable to believe a soul can reanimate someone else’s body… even if it were possible, it was not the intelligent way for Valentina to get what she needed – it hurt herself, her parents, her sister, and her aunt, for no good reason.