The Chosen Ones: A Novel

页数:0

价格:60.00

isbn号码:9780312076696

From Publishers Weekly This British import is as bland and trivial as its main characters， five young women who have become "close as sisters" while rooming together at Lorivals， a boarding school in rural Lancashire catering to the elite or "chosen ones." At graduation， one of the girls， placid Lady Amelia Urquart， suggests the group reunite in 10 years， no matter what. The others agree; they are Barbara Smythe， snobbish and spiteful; working-class Maisie Jayson; worldly Lois Brampton; and narrator Nancy Graham， head girl at Lorivals. Hylton ( Summer of the Flamingoes ) lurches from one setting to another--the English countryside， London， the Far East--as she homes in on Nancy's fortunes throughout the decade. Working first as a small-town journalist and then for a firm trading in unspecified "Oriental treasures，" Nancy conducts a series of ill-advised affairs， with repercussions that disquiet Amelia and undo Lois. At best， the protagonists are insipid， the prose hackneyed ("At night in the velvet dark Hong Kong sparkled like a gigantic diamond") and the ballyhooed reunion at novel's end not worth the wait. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Library Journal The sketchy nature of the characters in this historical novel (following Summer of the Flamingoes ， St. Martin's Pr.， 1991) makes it difficult to become involved in their plights. With the exception of emotionless narrator Nancy， the five roommates who attend an exclusive English boarding school are virtually indistinguishable. Two decades speed by， with the author focusing on which roommate will achieve happiness. Nancy seems unaffected by the adventures that befall the quintet， and readers will probably share her lack of interest. Even the school's ten-year reunion is anticlimactic. Not recommended.- Sue Mevis， Ludlow Memorial Lib.， Monroe， Wis.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information， Inc.