Maybe They'll Remember Me by Philip S Newey
| Maybe They'll Remember Me by Philip S Newey | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: A family saga, told from a number of interweaving perspectives. Maybe They'll Remember Me reads very easily, and a couple of minor quibbles aside, is worth a look for anyone interested in family drama. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 204 | Date: October 2012 |
| Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform | |
| ISBN: 978-1480066328 | |
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When Gregory receives a letter from an ageing actress requesting his presence, he takes the only sensible action: he hops on a plane to Switzerland to visit her home. Whilst there, she reveals a multi-layered story that helps him understand more about his parents' life, and by association, his life.
I enjoyed Maybe They'll Remember Me. It read very easily, with a clear and direct writing style. The pacing was very good too: never dragging, or zipping forward so fast that you can't fully appreciate the writing. For a family saga, it's of a good standard, with the expected range of tribulations and associated emotions. The story is told from the point of view of many characters, both past and present, each taking the reins for a few chapters, before returning them to another protagonist. We start off at different ends of the story, expecting pieces of the jigsaw to be slowly fitted together. However, it settles down into characters in the present telling of the past, and characters of the past telling of their present. The plot becomes surprisingly linear - enjoyable, but linear.
This lack of variance in the way the plot unfolds also highlights a lack of variance in the voices of the characters. A couple of minor characters have notable accents, and the actress slips into full-blown grand dame mode for a few sentences at a time, here and there. Aside from that, there's not much to separate the main characters. In an intentionally linear story, this would be less noticeable, but here it can momentarily distract.
A couple of minor quibbles aside, Maybe They'll Remember Me makes for a good read. There are hefty slices of soap opera and family saga, without ever being too harrowing. It's light enough to read easily, if you're looking to be taken out of yourself for a few hours, yet sufficiently well-written to never veer towards trashy. Most importantly, you care about the characters and their lives. You hope that, whatever life-changing events get thrown at them, they're able to find some sense of happiness.
For other family sagas, take a look at All The Nice Girls by Joan Bakewell and Remembrance Day by Leah Fleming.
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