Other People's Worlds

by William Trevor

Julia was very happy. Safe in her old stone house drowsing in the sun, she is soon to be married to Francis. Doris was not happy. Sprowled amongst the grime of her Fulham flat, she gropes behind the breadbin for the vodka that keeps her going and waits endlessly for Francis. And Francis, dreaming of Constance Kent driving the knife deep into the child's throat, smiles.

William Trevor's pellucid prose and elegant craftsmanship coolly lead the reader into the pathological world of Francis Tyte – a world where his secret and shabby fantasies feed destructively on his victims.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Novels, Crime

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

William Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."

In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.

Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wikipedia hits the nail on the head for this novel by Trevor: “The characters in Trevor's work are typically marginalized members of society: children, the elderly, single middle-aged men and women, or the unhappily married. Those who cannot accept the reality of their lives create their own alternative worlds into which they retreat. A number of the stories use Gothic elements to explore the nature of evil and its connection to madness.”

The main character is a 47-year old widow in a small English town who is marrying a much younger man, a good-looking bit-part actor who appears across England in a TV ad. Her young-adult daughters are happy for her but her mother has reservations that she (unfortunately) keeps to herself.



The actor is the protagonist in the story. Let’s make a list. We’ll start off mildly and work our way up the scale: he’s a cad, a con-man, a gigolo, a sponge, a user, a bigamist, a sociopath and maybe a psychopath. He uses women for money. Sometimes he marries them, as he did with an elderly widow; sometimes he gets them pregnant, as he does with the third main character in the story, a young woman who has his now-12-year-old daughter. He flits in and out of their lives causing more damage.

The actor seems to be multisexual. (Yes, that’s a word now.) He’ll go with old ladies and young women and he has sex with men for money. At one point in the story he’s attracted to an underage girl. He’s an equal-opportunity destroyer of lives. This is probably the most sexually-oriented novel of all of Trevor’s that I have read, but there is no joy in any of the sex. It all seems to be survival tactics on the actor’s part.

The latest widow’s honeymoon in Italy (for which she paid) ends disastrously and she never sees him again. Yet she still loves him and through various twists and turns, gets involved in the other people in his life. (Back to the title.) She watches the tragic downward spiral of the mother of the actor’s child; she even gets involved with his parents in an old folks’ home.

It’s been said that it’s easy for us to see the flaws in other people’s lives but not in our own. We want to take a few friends and family members and shake them by the shoulders and say: “Stop drinking!” “Leave that abusive loser!” “Get off your butt and get a decent job.” “Pay some attention to your kids!” “Lose some weight and two-thirds of your health problems will go away.” To the widow we want to say “Cut loose from these people! It’s over. Get on with your life.” But then we would have no story.

There are other themes in the story. One is the widow’s overly-caring nature: “…her compassion made a victim of her.” As in many of Trevor’s works there’s a Catholic-Protestant theme. The widow is Catholic, so the con-artist studies up on the religion to pretend he’s Catholic. Meanwhile the local priest is in love with her. With all this trauma, the widow start losing her faith. She tells the priest her feelings now about God: “Is He my own particular illusion, a fog of comfort to be lost in? ….He’s just a wisp of nothing now.”



William Trevor is one of my favorite authors and I have read about 15 of his novels and collections of short stories. Below are links to reviews of some others of my favorite novels of his:

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel

After Rain

The Hill Bachelors

Fools of Fortune

Nights at the Alexandra

The Children of Dynmouth

Photo of Congleton, Cheshire from alamy.com
The author from theaustralian.com.au

[Revised, spoilers hidden 9/16/23]

[Tony]

I hadn't quite thought of it this way. Yes, we're connected; we abut; we do dialogue; we do the essentials in conjunction: procreation, tennis volleys, sarcasm. Yet, in real life, we are not actors in a stage play; this is not a set piece. Each of us has, first, our own existence, our own understanding, our own world. Yours is not mine; nor mine, yours. But by necessity, we occasionally enter each other's world. And there is not always a suitable translation.

Julia Ferndale is widowed, a Catholic, with two grown daughters and living with her mother in slightly reduced circumstances. She types legal documents for the law offices of Warboys, Smith and Toogood, Solicitors and Commissioners of Oaths.

Doris Smith lives with her daughter, a love child, and hides her half-bottles of vodka in a bread box. She sells shoes, but not after her petty thievery is discovered.

Francis Tyte looks like Leslie Howard and has done commercials, small parts in television. He ingratiates, charms. He leaves when he has what he wants.

It is Francis who fathered Doris' child. It is Francis who will marry, then desert Julia.

Connections suddenly were everywhere, an ugly sense crept out of hiding.

This is classic Trevor, with an attention to detail (sponge-bag trousers and a jacket gone over with thawpit), wry colloquialism (He'd got even thinner, his face especially, not that it didn't suit him. Lean bacon's best, as Irene in handbags always said.), and a seeping creepiness.

Police are called; Miss Purchase runs a nursing home; Julia's mother hobbles to her bench under the tulip tree. They, too, have their own worlds, and see it all through a separate lens.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

As readers, we spend time vicariously in Other People's Worlds. But even if we didn't, we don't live in our own little world. Our lives intersect with others, obviously with some more than most.

Julia Ferndale, a widow of 9 years, lives a relatively secluded life in a mostly rural part of Gloucestshire. And then Francis Tyte happens in her life. Francis Tyte is a small bit actor, but that is the least of his story. He seems unable to draw the line between what is real and that which is not. Mostly, he shares with others a life that most decidedly he manufactured out of whole cloth. And he is believed - not just by Julia, but by everyone. Francis has often lived in Other People's Worlds.

The writing style is interesting. I had forgotten how much I enjoy William Trevor. In fact, I have been reading so many mysteries of late that I have neglected many novelists who I have enjoyed. I thought his characterizations well done. It isn't all characterization, though, and there is certanly enough plot to move things along, to keep interest up.

At the end, William Trevor brings us up short. I think this book would spur a long and interesting discussion at a book club. How do Other People's Worlds affect us over our lifetimes? Without the thought-provoking ending, this is probably a very good 4-stars. Because of that ending, I will think of this for some time. I'm inclined to move it across into the bottom of my 5-star group.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

If while stuck in a crowded airport, sitting on a subway train or waiting for a table at a popular restaurant, you’ve mused about or even concocted lives for some of the people around you, then you’ll enjoy William Trevor’s books. The author has an uncanny ability to capture the despair of individuals trapped within circumstances – particularly when those circumstances are of their own making.

Trevor’s “studies” of these personal psychological dilemmas are enlightening, depressing, always engaging, and are laced with subtle and dark humor. The author effectively slips the reader into his characters’ lives as a true fly on the wall, chronicling the human condition, without being heavy-handed, overwrought or judgmental. This novel is less than 250 pages and it’s difficult to imagine another author telling this story as poignantly in a book twice the length.

In Other People’s Worlds, 47 year old widow Julia Ferndale has fallen in love with and is set to marry 33 year old Francis Tyte. Francis is a bit-player actor, his face recognizable from television tobacco commercials, who has a very tawdry past. In a word he is a true scoundrel, with a trail of human wreckage, the result of his self-centered manipulative opportunism.

Julia’s elderly mother, with her maternal radar, is more than a little concerned about her daughter’s matrimonial decision. She ineffectually drags her two young adult grand-daughters within her web of anxiety – passing the buck, but solving little. Meanwhile Francis’ lies and his past are stalking him, in the person of Doris, an old-flame – who provides the book’s most pathetic, and darkly humorous scenes. (There is also a Ferndale housekeeper whose actions cause a chuckle or three.)

At the center of all this is Julia, who for all intents and purposes is a “good” person that “bad” things are happening to and as the tale unfolds Trevor begs the question and subtly asks the reader – When does a saint become a fool? A very poignant read that will have you thinking long after you finish it.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without giving too much away, the big twist at the end was so vaguely alluded to that I had to double back, thinking I must have missed something.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a writer, William Trevor has an innate ability to convey the tragedies of our lives, how individuals can be worn down by their fates and circumstances. It’s a quality that’s very much in evidence here, in the author’s 1980 novel, Other People’s Worlds, a tale of deception, collateral damage and a questioning of faith. But, if anything, the story is even darker than Trevor’s other early to mid-period work, more malevolent perhaps than The Children of Dynmouth, with which it shares a central theme – how a sinister figure can sweep into people’s lives, leaving wreckage in their wake.

The man in question is Francis Tyte, a thirty-something bit-part actor whose main claim to fame is a series of tobacco commercials on the TV. As the novel opens, Francis is preparing to marry Julia Ferndale, a forty-seven-year-old woman who lives wither her widowed mother, Mrs Anstey, in Swan House, their Gloucestershire home. Mrs Anstey has some nagging doubts about Francis, which she tries to voice to her grown-up grandchildren, Henrietta and Katherine, but to little avail. While Julia’s daughters agree that their mother should make a will, they have no great concerns about Francis himself. After all, Julia seems happy with him, contently planning their honeymoon in Florence, for which she alone will pay.

Francis, however, is not as charming or innocent as he might appear at first sight, as Trevor quickly reveals to the reader (but not to Julia herself). Over the years, Francis has latched onto a series of people (often women), inveigling his way into their worlds, taking advantage of their generosity – and in some instances, their vulnerabilities. It’s a well-worn routine, complete with a tragic childhood to illicit the victims’ sympathies, perfected over time, from one family to another.

After the tragedy of his parents’ death when he was eleven he’d spent the remainder of his childhood in Suffolk, with a faded old aunt who had died herself a few years ago. None of that was true. As a child he had developed the fantasy of the train crash; his parents were still alive, the aunt and her cottage figments of his imagination. But in the drawing-room of Swan House he recalled the railway tragedy with suitable regret, and was rewarded with sympathy and another cup of tea. (p. 28)

To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2022...

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Trevor's work is wonderful. Though published more than 40 years ago, questions about the human condition, the damages people cause to others, and what we owe to others, are forever modern. The novel is well-peopled, the minor characters become primary, their life stories so well-delineated. Julia Ferndale, a widow, who has fallen in love, to her great surprise, with the much younger Francis Tyte, an actor whose claim to fame, thus far, is appearing in pipe tobacco ads and commercials. A garden wedding is planned, a honeymoon in Italy. There is Julia's mother, who likes Francis and then is concerned. There is Francis, his story running through the novel, the damage he causes. There is Doris, whom Francis seduced years before, leaving her with their daughter Joy. There is poverty, abuse, alcoholism, familial love, kind turns by Julia to the strangers who have entered her life because of Francis. Marvelous.

[Laura McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I nearly stopped reading when I realized this is one of Trevor’s books about a profoundly disturbed and disturbing predator. I didn’t think I wanted to be immersed as only Trevor can immerse you in the mind of a damaged being. But the writing is utterly engrossing, and I simply couldn’t stop turning the pages. In the end I found that this book, like Felicia’s Journey, softens the horror of crime by truly and deeply pondering the juxtaposition of good and evil, faith and doubt. It’s such a profoundly compassionate book, as if Trevor were not just a writer but the kind of priest I wish I knew well.

[Penny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did actually finish this, albeit rushing through it after the first fifty pages and skipping so that I just got the main gist of the story. I thought it was by an author I had read previously and enjoyed, but I was wrong. The basic premise - older woman marries younger man who has only married her for her money, and anyway is already married - seemed OK. But the characters were at best weak, and at worse evil and totally ludicrous. Nothing rang true about this story; the plot was unbelievable. Maybe it didn't help having a man write from woman's p of v, but I was glad to get done with it.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read William Trevor’s books in the late 1990s and consider him as one of my favorite authors. His fiction and short stories are equally good. I joined GoodReads about 2 months ago and wanted to start to build up my library/books read here, since I do enjoy reading.

Not unusual for William Trevor's books, I found this to be excellent and hence my 5-star rating. I of course had to get the hardback version. :)

[Chrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis Tyte is a conman who leaves a path of destruction wherever he roams, wreaking havoc on other people's lives. Will he be found out and punished? The chapters are told from alternating points of view, from Francis to Doris (the alcoholic mother of his child) to Julia (who marries him not knowing he is a bigamist). All these people's worlds are devastated by Francis's dastardly actions.

The spiraling action reaches a point where the novel then takes a surprising turn and focuses on Julia's crisis of faith. This for me was the most interesting part of the book and I thought was a brilliant turn in the story. It is a very dark novel, but the ending leaves room for hope. Will Julia survive her crisis of faith? How will Francis's teenage daughter be affected by the pain he has caused in other people's worlds?

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great Irish writers of novels and short stories. any rating would fail to indicate the fullness of William Trevor’s writing, his ability to convey, in this instance, cruelty and kindness and its consequences.

[Thor Balanon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other People's Worlds is everything you expect in a William Trevor novel: sharp details of the everyday, immersive characterization, immersive inner worlds that overlap. And within those spaces of intersection lies the brilliance of Trevor, where guilts collide, where happiness seems to be within reach but not quite. The chapters are divided into each character's worlds. One is filled with malice, one filled with desperation, the other with faith and innocence. When the worst of these worlds finally crash against each other, it's a manic race for redemption.

[Russell George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable for the style, but one of the lead characters, Doris, just didn’t feel real enough for me. She felt like a working class stereotype, something that Mike Leigh would create and call it black comedy. Still, I think I’ve pinned down what I most like about William Trevor – it’s the way he weaves dialogue into his prose without it drawing attention to itself, as if it’s an extension to the author’s voice rather than some other element. But this isn’t probably one of his better novels, although still very readable.

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this about 20 years ago, reading it again now. The story of the damage that one man, Francis Tyte, inflicts upon all those who interact with him--particularly women, told in typical William Trevor style, with gentle attention to the details. He's so astute at unearthing the details that make up a person's existence to the history below them, or the fears, or the doubts that drive them. I couldn't help but wondering if Francis Tyte might be Trevor's fears of his own gifts gone dark. He can make up a story about his life in a flash, with all sorts of characters with names and histories and problems, and he uses such stories to get people to like him, or to get himself out of sticky situations. And then each person in his orbit--whether it's Julia Ferndale, the older widow who is about to marry him, or Doris Smith the erstwhile lover and mother of his hapless daughter -- make up their own versions of the stories he's told, or their own ideas about the person they've met. And it's those beliefs they form about him that Francis uses for his own gain. It's so clever because we all do this, form our own ideas about who another person is, and those ideas then drive our behavior. In this novel, Trevor weaves several people's ideas about Francis and each other into an interconnected network that is tragic and yet, in characteristic W Trevor style, not entirely without hope.

SPOILER
I have one huge question. When Francis goes to see the seamstress in his state of sweaty anger, he picks up the scissors and blood sprays everywhere. So we're meant to understand that he stabbed her to death, yes? Then Doris tells the police her mixed-up story of killing someone with a tea-pot. Then Julia reads the newspaper story of a seamstress killed with a teapot, and in the next chapter, Doris is described as living in the room that's been assigned to her, playing with wooden pieces.

So is it that the police were so influenced by Doris's messed-up story that when they found the seamstress's body, they ignored all the evidence of a stabbing with bloody scissors and instead believed she'd been bludgeoned with a teapot? And so therefore Doris winds up in jail or maybe a home for the criminally insane, but anyway she's paying for Francis's crime. Which would be a very W Trevor thing to happen. But it's hard for me to believe that the police would see a body that had been stabbed and think, no, she's been bashed with a teapot. Is W Trevor asking us to believe that? Or is there some other explanation? Like maybe Julia has misread the article wrong because she has Doris's story in her mind? That seems even more far-fetched because there's nothing to suggest that's what she's done, or to counter that belief.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[William Dornan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of William Trevor. His short stories are some of the best in the English language. I really enjoyed this book but enjoy is really a wierd word to use. The story is complex and is not really a light read. As the book progresses it becomes more and more complex.
A number of reviewers have given the plot so I will not do that here. The characters that Trevor creates here are really flesh and blood. The main characters and some of the minor characters are very well realized. All the people make life decisions. Many of them with catastrophic consequences.
The plot line is also well developed and it draws one in the further one reads the book.
The book is relatively short (219 pages) but there is much built into it. There were a couple of points in the book where I assumed that this would have been a good place to end. But Trevor is a master here and the book ends precisely where it should.
A great read.

[Andréa Lechner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is most definitely a story of two halves - the first one building up beautifully, holding us by the lapels, the second descending into farce. I was gripped by the development of the plot, until the wedding. The fact that such a strong character - Francis Tyte - disappears entirely from the novel was a massive disappointment, as he was the richest and most interesting character of them all. Finding out that he is still alive and living in Germany from Julia's accounts is a huge let-down. Therefore, my interest in the book started to dwindle as soon as Julia found herself alone in Italy. From then on, Doris took on far too much importance, and the novel lost interest and poignancy. A true shame, as Trevor was building up a corker.

[Dr. Jeffrey H. Schnitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is one of the most powerful books that I've read, yet it is also one of the quietest. Trevor's prose is beautiful and flowing, precise and original. His compassion for his flawed and fatally flawed characters is unfailing, and by the end of the book one has come to know everyone of them. The story is a tragedy of betrayal, yet the central character, Julia, displays Trevor's basic willingness to find the good in the ordinary everyday extraordinary, even when it's cruel - and Trevor knows what evil is and what it does to people. I read this short novel in two days because I couldn't put it down. Very highly recommended.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third Trevor book I've tackled is quite different from the others which were set in Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century. Other People's Worlds is set in and around London in the late 1980s and addresses the psychology of the people who have the misfortune to befriend the self-absorbed Francis Tyte. Ruth Rendell writes this sort of book much better, or at least she did in her heyday.

[Sondra Stark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bizarre

Not sure what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. It muddled on and on and never really made any sense about what the author was trying to convey. A total waste of and money.

[E.J. Cullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, well-written book up to a point. Ultimately irritating and unsatisfactory main character. Somebody give her a vigorous shake!

[Steve Smits · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much prose writing style by today's authors --even the literary lights we admire -- is crass, hard edged, often blunt and profane. I'm ok with this since so much else in the works of our genius writers is praise worthy -- themes, structure, complex portrayals of the human condition. But, it's fitting in remembering the incomparable William Trevor to savor his marvelous prose, so rich, subtle and evocative. In describing a character in just two sentences Trevor can give us a deeply nuanced sense of the character's essence and relationship to time, place and others. His writing is amazing in how it distills so much depth of meaning in so economical a fashion. Perhaps it's his ability to so effortlessly convey such depth that made him the master of the short story genre.

In his works, including his novels, Trevor often first introduces us to people that are recognizable and situations that are comprehensible, but then inserts a character who will dramatically alter the predictable paths of the lives of these people. In "Other People's Worlds", Julia Ferndale is a 47 year-old widow living with her mother in comfortable circumstances. Julia views other people a bit too incautiously; she has a compassionate outlook that her hard-edged mother thinks could stand a bit more skepticism. Julia has fallen in love with a much younger man, Francis Tyte, and they are set to be married in a few weeks. Francis is a journeyman actor, a handsome, charming man who is principally known for his appearance in a television commercial. Francis has a smooth and ingratiating personality and he's captured the affection of Julia's entire family.

Francis is an utter fraud, a sociopath who has manipulated and defrauded women and couples across the country. Everything he has told Julia about his past is false, including the story that his parents were killed in a railway accident; they are alive in a retirement home. Francis is married to a much older women who he has abandoned. In London he had taken up with Doris, a shop girl, with whom he's had Joy, a hapless girl now twelve years-old. Doris is obsessed with her "Frankie" who stops by from time-to-time but keeps from making their relationship permanent with lies about his "dying" wife who he cannot abandon. It is suggested that Francis was sexually abused as a child, but this could be a lie. We do learn that on late night jaunts into London's seamier district he performs sexual acts with men for money.

Julia and Francis are married and depart on their honeymoon to Italy where on the first day Francis announces that he has no intention to remain with Julia and gets her in her shock to sign over some valuable jewelry he has had his eye on. Julia returns to England shattered, but doesn't wish to make this fraud public. Julia was a deeply religious Catholic, but in a counseling session with her priest we see that this event has shattered her belief that God is merciful and just.

There is a newspaper account of Francis's cruel act (the hotel manager had notified the Italian police) and thus learning about Julia Doris seeks her out. Doris is becoming increasingly unbalanced and has developed a delusion that an actress seen with Francis has stolen him from her. Doris's drinking is out of control and she is making threatening statements toward the actress. Julia tries to intervene by going to London to stop Doris who is on a drinking binge and can't be found. Julia becomes aware of Joy's plight and there's a growing indication that she must do something to save this child. Doris's threats to the actress are not fulfilled, but it is learned from the newspaper that a woman matching Francis's wife has been murdered. Doris is shown to be locked away somewhere, either prison or an asylum.

Another wonderful aspect of Trevor's plots is that he never takes the cheap path to resolving the conflicts created for the characters. What could for some authors be a revenge ending where Francis gets what he deserves turns out quite differently for Julia. She has been deeply hurt by Francis but she knows that her own weakness is part of the cause of this. She once loved Francis but now sees him as a pitiful person whose sickness stirs some degree of compassion, a trait that has remained despite the wounds she has suffered. A letter from Germany arrives in which Francis absolves himself from any blame and asks for money. Julia does so (and it seems will continue to do so), not out of love or any desire to entice him back, but because her core value of empathizing with "Other People's Worlds" remains within her, even though this has brought darkness to her.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 stars. An unexpectedly gripping book. It cast a spell over me.

"...but to his consternation the woman he had married showed no signs of handing back her borrowed time and in fact was still alive" (36).
"...in the sitting-room where the clock and the knitting-needles kept time with one another…" (89).
"The morning sun livened the stained-glass panels on either side of the hall door" (119).
"'He's eaten up with self-pity, he damages everyone who has the misfortune to encounter him'" (186).
"'She came to allocate blame,' Mrs Antsey said…" (187).
"...shot through like a colander" (197).
"...and doing anything was better than introspection. She'd got into a great muddle because of the drifting of her thoughts, and her endeavours to come to terms with God. She wanted a miracle, of course: all the pain taken away, packaged explanations" (205).
"'Doris, it is not an illness. You have a new leaf to turn over, that at the most is all'" (207).

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes when I’m reading books, I get the feeling that an author just completely gave up on a main character. That’s what happened, in my opinion, to Julia of William Trevor’s book. He just gave up on her. Threw in the towel. Didn’t even try to give her any sense of dignity, showcase any courage on her part, imbue intelligence in her, not even grace ~

It was awful.

My only consolation is that I did not purchase the book but borrowed it from Prime.

Started out with such wonderful promise and built into a nice, quiet intensity that I found compelling. Then, seemingly apropos of nothing at all, the story dropped. How disappointing.
 
 
 

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

British, although written by an Irish writer. I forget - in between reading him- what a brilliant writer Trevor is. Julia, a middle aged widow, financially comfortable, has met and fallen in love with Francis. Her mother comes to know he is a rogue (as he is) and tries to warn Julia and her daughters but has difficulty explaining her concerns. But, of course, she is right to be concerned. The relationships between the characters, some of whom are quite unpleasant people, are beautifully explored.

[Emerald Fallarme]

At first I was expecting this novel to be about a big twist that would get you excited about its ending. However, I realised that it is more about what is going on in every character's personality and how they deal with the things they go through. Unlike most novels which covers a story as a sequence of events, this novel reveals a story as a collection of points of view. It is raw in that sense as it reveals the most private part of us human beings, our thoughts. The story can have a different effect to the reader based on how he processes the thought and actions by the character.

[Sandygator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler alert….I like the writing style of this book, but some of the plot lines confused me. Why did Francis suddenly disappear from the narrative? And the ending was kind of choppy. Didn’t have the satisfying resolution I was hoping for and didn’t understand why Julia was the way she was. I will try another of his books as a comparison.

[Dave Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start, but I'm very glad I stuck with it. Once all the characters have been brought in, the story of how their lives intertwine can be told with great depth and verisimilitude. The author is especially good at the complex human motivations and often self-defeating behaviours that defy rationality and yet are entirely credible.

[Hari Brandl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious

Mr Trevor writes lovely prose, and the story of how the callousness of a cad, a bigamist who bills women of their money and jewellery can wreak havoc in the lives of all he comes in contact with as he flits in and out of lives.

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully and skillfully written, as always, but 1) I didn't understand the villain's motivation and therefore didn't quite believe that he would do what he did and 2) it was a bit dull at times (a rarity for this author).