A New England Affair

The Eliot Quartet #3

by Steven Carroll

Why do some nights feel as though they were always waiting to happen? Or have already happened and will again? And why don't we know it then? Why is it only afterwards we say, yes, that was when my life turned?

1965. The great poet, TS Eliot, is dead. Hearing the news, the seventy-four year old Emily Hale points her Ford Roadster towards the port of Gloucester, where a fishing boat will take her out to sea, near the low, treacherous rocks called the Dry Salvages, just off Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

Over the course of that day, clutching a satchel of letters, Emily Hale slips between past and present, reliving her life with Eliot - starting with that night in 1913, the moment when her life turned, when the young Tom Eliot and Emily Hale fell deeply in love with each other. But Tom moved to London to fulfil his destiny as the famous poet 'TS Eliot', and Emily went on to become his muse - the silent figure behind some of the greatest poetry of the 20th century - his friend and his confidante. But never did she become his lover or his wife.

Genres: Historical, Fiction, Novels, 21st Century, Historical Fiction, Australia

235 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2017

About the author

Steven Carroll is an Australian novelist. He was born in 1949 in Melbourne, Victoria and studied at La Trobe University. He has taught English at secondary school level, and drama at RMIT. He has been Drama Critic for The Sunday Age newspaper in Melbourne.

Steven Carroll is now a full-time writer living in Melbourne with his partner, the writer Fiona Capp, and their son. As of 2019, he also writes the non-fiction book review column for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The full extent of the love affair in letters written between T S Eliot and Emily Hale will not be revealed until 2020. There are over 1,000 letters locked away until January 2020. The gift to Princeton University Library by Emily Hale includes letters that span from 1930 to 1958.

The author has given the reader an insight into this unrequited love affair of T S Eliot and Emily Hale his secret muse. As famous as Eliot was the descriptions given by the author conjures in the mind a real “ponse and a snob” disowning his Americanism for that of an English gent. Described beautifully several times by Emily that he would never really be accepted no matter how hard he tried to emulate the “high class accent” and wearing the “tweeds”. The author has created his own Emily Hale veering away from the real person, describing a rather more pathetic version very similar to his colourless Iris in A World of Other People. (I wonder why Steven Carroll has followed this vein, given that after WW1 there were many changes for women and by WW2 women were in sometimes very authoritive positions). Controlled by her Aunt and Uncle, Emily, is unable to pursue her real dreams on the stage and is left with a half life of mediocracy and unfulfilment. Emily is unable to openly declare her love to Eliot, rather there is this constant babble of silliness, perhaps due to Emily’s constrained upbringing. There are books written about T S Eliot which is probably why Steven Carroll has created Emily as his main character, however, for most female readers of today Emily is a dull stupid woman who waited on the shelf into aged spinsterhood all because she could not get the words out “I love you”.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘And in the end, all her waiting had come to nothing.’

In 1965, Emily Hale hears that T S Eliot is dead. She is seventy-two. She heads off to Gloucester, Massachusetts, in her Ford Roadster. With a satchel of letters, Emily Hale is heading by fishing boat to the Dry Salvages (off Cape Ann, Massachusetts). And as the boat heads out to sea, Emily Hale reflects on her life with T S Eliot. They fell in love, in 1913. But when Tom Eliot left the USA for England, left Tom Eliot to become T S Eliot, their relationship shifted. What might it have been? What if Emily Hale and Tom Eliot had married? If, instead of his confidante and muse, she’d become his lover and wife?

In this novel, in this telling, Emily Hale waits for an opportunity which never arises. She hopes, but knows not how to move beyond.

‘That’s what hope does. Feeds you the story you want to believe. Except it’s not a story, it’s your life.’

And the satchel of letters? What does Emily Hale intend to do with them? Has she the courage? This novel traverses the lifetime of Emily Hale’s relationship with T S Eliot over the course of the day she spends at sea. Emily Hale, fixed in place physically for most of the novel, moving between past and present, remembering and regretting.

This is the third novel in Steven Carroll’s Eliot Quartet. Each novel looks at a different aspect of T S Eliot’s life, and this is Emily Hale’s story, of a love which never found the right time or place. It’s a story of unrequited hope, of opportunities missed or somehow misplaced. I’ve read and enjoyed the first two novels in the quartet (‘The Lost Life’ and ‘A World of Other People’). I will now wait – patiently, as I must– for the fourth.

Steven Carroll is one of my favourite novelists and T S Eliot is one of my favourite poets. I’m really enjoying these novels. I sometimes feel annoyed with both the T S Eliot and the Emily Hale portrayed in these pages, and I wonder. Why did Emily Hale continue to wait?

‘We wished for one thing, and History gave us another.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Fourth Estate for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Brona's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

In close to one of the worst book cover choices I've ever seen, A New England Affair by Steve Carroll is a classic case of a book that should not be judged by its cover!

Yes, a woman heading out to sea (to the Dry Salvages) is a central part of the story, but the woman (Emily Hale) is elderly and is meant to be carrying a satchel, stuffed with letters and journals (detailing her life long love affair with T. S. Eliot), slung over her shoulders. I'm sure that pink dress was fashionable once, but nothing about that cover says 'pick me up and look inside'. Fortunately Steven Carroll's name is in large print, and that is now enough to make me look twice.

I adored The Lost Life, Carroll's first story in his planned T. S. Eliot quartet and admired A World of Other People. Curiously I didn't feel anywhere near as passionate about AWOOP, as I did about TLL, although I remember far more about it.

The premise of the four stories is loosely linked to Eliot's Four Quartets, which had the potential to make the books too clever for their own good, but the link is loose and you could read all of the books in any order, as stand alone stories, without any knowledge of the poems. Which is how I started off.

Of course, I couldn't stay out of the loop for long!
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/...

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

New England Affair is a melancholy book, but it’s beautiful.
Emily Hale, muse to TS Eliot but never his wife or lover, returns in this, the third book of Steven Carroll’s Eliot Quartet.  Reminiscent of Mrs Dalloway, the story takes place on a single day in 1965, as Emily – now aged 74 and in extremis after learning of Eliot’s death – mulls over the tragedy of her life.  On a fishing boat heading for treacherous rocks Emily slides between past and present, reliving the scenes of her wasted life, while the reader wonders what’s inside the satchel that she clutches and what she plans to do.
It’s a small tragedy as tragedies go, but it’s real nonetheless.  The couple fell in love in 1913, in New England, and with exquisite tact Carroll depicts Emily’s memory of the moment when both realised that their destiny lay with each other but they failed to say what they were really feeling.  The moment passed and Eliot set off for what was meant to be a year of study overseas but became a new life in London.   He achieved prestige and fame as a great poet, but he also made a hasty marriage which he regretted, as depicted in The Lost Life.
Emily transcended this betrayal and they maintained a relationship through letters and her regular trips across the Atlantic, but she never became his lover.  As she relives this time in her life she is convinced that all his poems contain coded allusions to their love, and she rationalises the way she was always kept secret except with a very small circle of his friends.  But she’s no fool really: she knew only too well that Virginia Woolf despised her and that the Bloomsbury set would never really accept Eliot as the Englishman he yearned to be.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/11/24/a...

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a long time fan of Steven Carroll, he never disappoints and this book is simply (but far from simple) another example of his enormous talent.
I finished this book reluctantly and in tears, but also very angry. Steven is far kinder to Tom Eliot than I would be, perhaps this a "male" thing and I am too much the outraged female.
This is a story of enduring, obsessive love, completely selfish for one and completely selfless for the other. Oh, Emily Hale, if only you had been born in the fifties. I know you were brave enough, you would never have allowed your life to be overruled by convention and social etiquette. You would have realised that Tom is both selfish and self-absorbed, cowardly, a "would-be-if-he could-be " fake Englishman. You would have not waited beyond the first year but moved on and led a life, not lost one. (Had you finally consummated your relationship, you would have been bitterly disappointed in his efforts anyway!) I think we would have been friends.
As much as I appreciate the gift of T.S. Eliot, I didn't find him a likeable character after A World of
Other People and haven't changed my mind after A New England Affair. It is a brilliant read.

[Tundra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a story of love that is full of melancholy and beauty. Yes it is really sad. I don’t know much about T.S. Eliot’s writing but about half way through the book I googled some background on him and listened to his poem ‘The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNsP...
It was a revelation as I heard Anthony Hopkins read lines like “Time yet for a hundred indecisions...” - I saw the cleverness of a poem embedded in a novel. Emily is a procrastinator and paralysed by indecision which ultimately leads to her predicament in the novel. Steven Carroll is obviously passionate about T.S. Eliot and has captured a little of the essence of him in his own writing. However you certainly don’t need to be familiar with Eliot to appreciate this book. I have never read a book by Steven Carroll before but will certainly be revisiting him.

This novel also reminded me a little of Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift as it captures a moment reflected upon and a love that is destined to be unfulfilled.
It is much gentler but with a similar feel.

[Vin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read THE LOST LIFE and now A NEW ENGLAND AFFAIR, leaving the middle book in the trilogy A WORLD OF OTHER PEOPLE to another day. For me Carroll is one of the masters among Australian literature, and this book doesn't disappoint. What should an author write about towards the end of their career? Carroll's method uses a good story with the characters engaged in heaps of reflection to mirror the writer's vantage point. With his command of language, Carroll has the luxury of telling the story at its own pace. Slowly in this case.
"One life / To say we care so loud and clear / We have to make it count after all / With only one life" (from Jimmy Webb's 'Only One Life'). The reader can decide if the main characters make the best use of their one life, but you can take it from me, Steve Carroll is making the best use of his.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book. I have given up on Stephen Carroll previously. Just something about his writing style doesn't gel for me.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven Carroll has a quiet, almost laconic style that in this novel provides a thoughtful, meditative and nostalgic quality. This is the third of his series that pay tribute to T S Eliot and his Four Quartets. Eliot’s The Dry Salvages (the third of the quartet) refer to rocks off the coast of Massachusetts and Carroll gives descriptions of them that underpin the sense in his novel that people come and go but nature remains - as does art.

The novel’s title refers to the brief relationship between the young ‘Tom’ and Emily Hale. After Eliot goes to England and marries (unhappily) he retains a friendship with Emily by letter and through her visits to England over many years until his second marriage forces a painful end to their unconsummated affair. It is understood by literary critics that Emily was the inspiration for many of Eliot’s poems.

The novel deftly blends fact and fiction and creates a complex portrait of Emily and, through her, of Eliot. After I read the novel I found that Hale donated Eliot’s letters to Princeton library with the caveat that they would remain sealed until 50 years after her death. They will be opened in 2020 so that is a literary event to look forward to!

Carroll’s ‘Eliot novels’ are more complex than those he writes about his Melbourne characters - of which I am particularly fond. I must admit that although there is a great deal to admire and think about in this book, it does not stay with me the way his novels set in Melbourne do.

Three and a half stars

[Richardsonb94 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just couldn’t get that moved or involved. I did enjoy the whole idea behind it. But I still looked into the real characters afterwards and will read the first two novels in his Eliot Quartet. Perhaps if I had read the two others before the third, it might have gotten to me more. I did notice a boo boo though which I would have thought should have been caught by a sub-editor. In two places a very important date is mentioned and it’s “June 31st”!

[Steve lovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never in my wildest dreams would I claim to be capable of wordsmithery to the finely honed marvel of literary excellence that Steven Carroll presents to the Australian reading public, doing so for several decades now. His ‘Glenroy’ series; his novels revolving around TS Eliot have been a mainstay in my own book perusing life for quite a while, with one of the above titles inspiring a little scribing of my own. ‘A New England Affair’ tells part of the history of the aforementioned poet’s both restrained yet tumultuous private life – that of his longstanding and unconsummated relationship with fellow American Emily Hale. In it we encounter both his wives as well – the first being Vivienne Haigh Wood. Marrying her in haste was largely the best way he could see to dispose of his virginity. His second spouse, Valerie, wedded him in his later life. She finally gave him some private bliss and sexual satisfaction. She was only touched on in the novel, but I was fascinated that Valerie was around forty years his junior. What was her motivation in marrying such an ageing beau – was she a gold digger for fame by association and/or financial security, or was there genuine love in the mix? I turned to the ether to find out more and discovered it seems to have been the latter. I was able to flesh her out a tad more and produced a blog piece, entitled ‘Gap’, as a result (stevelovell.id.au/2019/03/23/gap/). This revolved around her life with perhaps the greatest poet of last century, mixed in with a tale of a retired teacher and a salesperson from Kaboodle. If you’re so inclined, please do read it – but it does contain prose that is a little spicy.

In ‘A New England Affair’ we encounter Miss Hale, at age 74, when she has retreated into her inner person, the outcome of her final rejection years before by Tom Eliot. She is making a journey of significance by ketch out to the Dry Salvages, a notorious rock formation off her country’s North East coast. It is of importance to her because of a halcyon period she spent with her man of letters back in the day in the area. She takes this journey with an ageing seafarer at the helm; a journey to dispose of memories; a journey fraught with danger as there’s a storm a-brewing. Over the course of making the crossing she casts her mind back to those days when she had hopes, as well as to those when she had none; to when her dream was shattered. There were two moments when she could have possibly had what she wanted, so she reappraises those and what might have been. The problem was that their sameness got in the way. Both were socially withdrawn – unable to adequately communicate their real feelings. Eliot was hampered by his faith and of course, later on, by a wife he had little affection for, but much guilt because of. He did go on to find Valerie; Hale went on to shrivel.

More cerebral reviewers than I have pointed to allusions in the book to verses in his poetry, as well as to the works of Henry James and Jane Austen. I can’t claim to be nearly that savvy. It was the waste of almost, but not quite, two lives that got to me. One was renewed by a less corseted younger woman, with that taking me to another place.

Another of Carroll’s tomes had been sitting on my shelves for some time – it was, in fact, one of the six works of fiction from his examination of the Yarra City suburb of ‘Glenroy’. With supposedly the final offering of those being released in early ‘19, I decided I’d better tackle this one too.

In 1946 Sidney Nolan painted one of the author’s forebears, Katherine Carroll. The artist had read a newspaper report of a woman living on the fringes of the city in a manner long past. His take on her became the painting ‘Woman and Tent’. Carroll weaves her story into both ‘Spirit of Progress’ and that sixth publication, ‘The Year of the Beast’. The earlier novel also features ‘The Art of the Engine Driver’s’ (first in the series) engine driver Vic, his wife Rita, a Nolanesque dauber in Sam and a journalist, George. He is the reporter who has discovered a strange older woman living in a tent, with few of the modern amenities by then taken for granted. Sam is in love with an art gallery owner who, unfortunately for him, is just out of reach, prompting him to consider being part of the diaspora of arty types back to the Mother Country. Meanwhile, a solitary farmer, by whose land Katherine is camped, develops some feelings for her, becoming, to an extent, her keeper. And on the fringes lurks a developer, a portent of the Melbourne to come.

It’s an enthralling read, as is the last of the one’s focusing on this part of the city, but one that takes us from the 1940s back to the conscription debates of the Great War. The normally sedate metropolis is in turmoil, with the seething masses of protesters, for and against, filling the streets. Here we again encounter a younger Katherine as a stern and religious sister to Maryanne, a single mother-to-be with the older woman doing her best to assist in the final stages of her pregnancy. Maryanne has already lost her teaching job because of her dalliance with the child’s father and when word gets out that he is a small town draper of German extraction, she loses her community standing as well. You can imagine how all that goes down back then. In the mix is a footballer who falls from grace, as well, in a city awash with anti-Hun sentiment (shades of today’s antipathy, in some quarters, to those who follow the Islamic faith). He’s suspected of spying for the enemy, whereas it is another secret he is harbouring. Milhaus is assisted by an unexpected ally in Maryanne in his unburdening of it. Then we have Father Geoghan, on a god’s mission to save Maryanne from herself.

At some stage I must do an audit of what I’ve read of Carroll’s writings and try to fill in the gaps so I can boast I have consumed all of his oeuvre. But never fear – each book can be read as a stand-alone, such is the writer’s skill. But with the six books on the one ‘burb and the three that has Eliot involved, Carroll has created his own ‘beast’. I also loved his earlier works from late last century - ‘Remember Me, Jimmy James’ and ‘The Love Story of Lucy McBride’. If you too decide to slip into some Steven Carroll, I feel confident he will enchant and engross.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book in The Eliot Quartet and it's not as good as the first two. The book centers on Emily Hale, the woman who apparently shared an unrequited love with Tom Eliot. The focus of the story is on Emily's missed chances and wrong choices that led to her not sharing her life with Tom Eliot and so it turns out to be a book with a very negative focus.

Add to that the fact that the character of Emily Hale is very boring and I found that this book dragged. There's a lot of repetition and we never get to learn much of Tom Eliot - despite the fact the Emily repeats over and over that no-one knows Tom like she did, she doesn't really seem to have known him all that well at all.

The last novel in this quartet has not yet been published, but I hope it's more like the first two and less like this one.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third in Carroll's series on T S Eliot and they just keep getting better. Beautifully written and exquisitely balanced, they deal with lost love and opportunity in the lives of Eliot and his muse Emily Hale. Perhaps the greatest benefit for me though, was being able to go back to the original poems of The Four Quartets and read them with new insights. Highly recommended.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of unrequited love. While reading this I became aware that I'm more into tales where love flourishes, at least until a death or betrayal. This love story is mostly in the mind, and to my mind at least, this makes it less interesting and worthy, despite the quality of the writing.

[T.D. Kuchel · Rating 5 out of 5]

During a night of amateur theatre in 1913, Emily Bale, a twenty two year old with theatrical aspirations and 25 year old Tom Eliot, a philosophy student with poetic ambitions are brought together in a promise of love and happiness.

Fast forward to 1965, Emily is left haunted by the memory of her unrequited love and known to all as the old lady who once had a thing with someone famous.

Following the devastating news of Tom’s death, Emily heads out in her Ford Roadster, reflecting on their time together.

From the fateful day she witnessed the Tom Eliot she knew become T. S. Eliot after discovering a book that transformed his poetic ambition into a secret destiny, to the thousand plus letters he wrote to her spanning from from 1930 to 1958.

This novel by award winning Australian novelist, Steven Carroll is based on true events between the famous poet, T. S. Eliot and his muse, Emily Bale.

T. S. Eliot was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. His works include ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,’ a book of short stories about cats which Cats the musical was based upon.

What’s most fascinating about this story are the letters T. S. Eliot wrote to Emily, considering the real Emily Bale entrusted them to the Princeton University Library, only to be revealed to the public in 2020.

It is obvious reading his work just how inspired Steven Carroll is about T. S. Eliot’s work. Like poetry in itself, his words fall off the pages beautifully in this moving tale of unrequited love.

This is the third of Steven Carroll’s novels based on T. S. Eliot. It is a must read for any lover of poetry or romantic at heart.

[Janelle Varlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prospect of the third book in the quartet held me in great anticipation but sadly left me totally disappointed. The whole novel told the story of the journey Emily Hale made in a boat to discard her love letters sent to her over many years by Tom Eliot, the celebrated T. S. Eliot and we learnt along the boat journey the lifetime that the very proper Miss Emily Hale had spent waiting for Tom to keep his promise made to her many decades earlier. This book was very tedious and lacked the lively interactions of the first two novels and the rich characters whose lives crossed paths with T. S. Eliot in varying degrees. I would have to describe the story line as thin at best. I am now revising my eagerness to read the 4th book in the quartet which was. The reason why I launched on the journey to read the first three. The first two books in the quartet could be read as standalone novels but are all the more interesting from their combination. This one adds vey little value and could have been left unread.

Indy Reads ebook

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of this enticing short novel on my journey from Alice Springs to Perth. The novel is based on the real relationship of Emily Hale and Tom Eliot as she knew him - TS Eliot to the rest of the world. While based on known events- surviving letters and diaries of Ms. Hale, the author makes it know that this is a work of fiction on how one can hold on to love and promises over a lifetime. And how we can feel betrayed by another when perhaps it was our own feelings and conforming to expectations that betrayed us. I love what she thinks in the Epilogue: "the question of the lives we live and the lives we don't: what comes to pass and what might have come to pass. If your mood had been different on a certain day; if you had not assumed the luxury of time to change that or that in your life and put it in order..." An interesting study in regrets and grabbing the moment.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t claim to have heard of every novelist....but I am a bit ashamed to say I have never heard of Steven Carroll. And why should I have ? Well, lots of reasons, really...... He is Australian, a Miles Franklin (and other) award winner, he has written about a dozen novels.... and his first novel was published nearly 30 years ago.
And worse still, I actually came across him by accident..... a local library sell-off ....... I saw on the book’s cover that he was a Miles Franklin award winner, plus had won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award..... so the investment of $1 wasn’t going to be too unwise.

The book ended up being Part 3 of a quartet about TS Eliot.... but it can certainly be read alone. He is a good writer..... and this book deserves a far better cover .... no wonder it was in a library sell-off !

[Anne Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in Steven Carroll's Eliot quartet, this one is far more occupied with the actual life of T.S. Eliot. While it's primarily told from the point of view of Emily Hale, the woman he fell in love with in his youth, kept dangling for many years while he married two other women and the woman to whom he wrote over 1000 letters over the course of 30 or so years (letters which were released to the public only in 2020), it shows Eliot the man, as well as Eliot the poet in a rarely flattering light.

Even for readers not familiar with the history, this is an inspired study of the road not taken, how the most pivotal of human affairs rests on the precariousness of chance, or luck, or the vagaries of mood on a particular day. Brilliant.

[Lindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Steven Carroll but I could not finish this book. One reason is that the most casual google query will give yout the story line. Secondly, the characters, especially the POV character, failed to become real to me. There were moments when TS Eliot was on the page and the prose brightened a fraction but the book was told from Emily Hale's female perspective and she had no gumption whatsoever. How historically true that is is irrelevant, as a character she should have captured my heart and she didn't. I grew bored in the end because the narrative was 'monotone' throughout; written from intellect more than passion perhaps?

[Heather Boundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Eliot Quartet #3 delves further into the relationship of TS Eliot with his long-time 'friend' Emily Hale as she looks back, following his death, on their times together over the years and the decisions that shaped their love and its loss. As with each of the books so far there is a secondary story of a much younger couple whose apparent 'freedom' shines a light on the differences between these relationships as a consequence of the times in which they are set. Compelling reading....one to go!

[Amy Heap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Largely set in Massachusetts, A New England Affair is an imagined version of T.S. Eliot’s relationship with Emily Hale, which began when they were both young Americans in 1913. It’s about a love that never found its moment, though it endured for many years, and the frustrated longing, and soul searching are poignant. It is a call to communicate clearly, live fully, and to see the beauty in the ordinary.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for interweaving T S Eliot’s language, ideas and life; 4 stars for the Grace and Ted story. So about 4.5⭐️.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully written, but the story itself was uneventful and dull.

[Steve Castley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reader, I enjoyed the book but would not rave about it. As a writer, I found it wonderful and this is why I really loved it.

[Di · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon hearing of the death of T S Eliot, Emily Hale, a 74-year-old spinster heads for the docks in Massachusetts to board a small boat that will take her to see the treacherous rocks called the Dry Salvages. Over the course of one day, she re-lives her relationship with Tom Eliot (known to the world by his initials) - the life that might have been but never was. A fabulous book

[Taylah-ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new England affait was not, is not, the sort if book I would typically have chosen to read. However, after going on a 'blind date' with said book I found myself pleasantly surprised by the beautifully written words, yet I remained unmoved by the happenings of the story. The novel simply didn't hold my interest enough to wish to devour it, as I have so many before. I don't mean to give the impression the book is particularly bad, it's not, just that it was not to my own tastes.
The love Carroll writes of is somewhat of a universal truth and I found myself (recently heartbroken) identifing with the protagonist, Emily Hale, and her indignation towards the scrip fate forced upon her.

If you find yourself a lover of historical dramas or intrigued by the dramatised telling of T.S Elliot's secret (almost) love life, give A new England affair a read.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really like this book for the first 2/3rds...it came together in the end. I possibly didn't quite get the context until I'd finished it and read some other reviews.