Emma B

I would want to read this just because the title is so natty...if you threw your house out of the window, would it go inside out?

Winterson’s prose is unique and belies her upbringing as a Pentecostal Evangelist. The vivid imagery is dream-like, full of metaphor and symbol. The language is portentous and confident, yet also very tender and ultimately life-affirming. Who else could have her heroine a Venetian girl with webbed feet? But such metaphors for modern states of being are very helpful to those of us who are searching around to understand ourselves better, and it’s great fun.

‘Love in the time of paintings…’ this is a beautifully written book; tender and touching, as well as a fascinating and vivid interpretation of the life of Botticelli who died in poverty in Renaissance Florence. It becomes an even more fascinating read in the light of Burns’ own tragic death. After the recent Vermeer revival (Girl with the Pearl Earing) I would say that this book would make an even better film. Follow this link to a Botticelli painting of his beloved and get inspired to read the book...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Sandro_Botticelli_066.jpg

Did you know that there's an opera by Oliver Knussen based on this book... visually it's very close to the illustrations...outstanding...just like the book,and when the monsters say 'we'll eat you up, we love you so' they sing in a sort of barbershop harmony! My kids used to watch this when they were tiny and be mesmerised...and the music is very chaotic...difficult...but they still enjoyed it.

A question to you folks who've read this...did you think there was a clue as to Amber's identity when the woman with the church key referred to the Gypsies living nearby? I know it doesn't really matter what her identity was, but I wondered why they should be referred to if not to drop this hint? The cinema as a metaphor was a central theme...Alhambra...heaven on earth etc...somewhere where anything is possible...where you suspend your disbelief...as the family did when Amber turned up at their cottage...this linked in with Astrid's desire to capture things on film...then Amber destroyed the camera...and their house was gutted when they got home...this was the renewal, the fresh start...all this was terrific stuff, but I just feel that it could all have held together slightly better in order to feel more authentic and less contrived. Or perhaps the self-consciousness of the writing matches the self-consciousness of the characters?

The writing is indeed very sharp...and I still feel the same about that second chapter...it's a gift to be able to use words to put the reader through such an intense experience. The Grand Canyon bit is probably the next best bit for me (I want to see that now)...I think I wish she'd used these same skills for a different setting, different characters (she's so good at description that Michael could have been an astronomist instead and Eve an archaeologist?)...but I suppose any setting/character is a legitimate vehicle for expression if you do it well enough? I may have just read too many books in which being a writer/poet is a feature and I am bored with the 'type' and want to learn more about other lives. May be I just need to read something completely different for a change...

This gradually went down hill for me...agree with Tom...trying too be too clever? In the end I didn't care about any of the characters, except perhaps Magnus who I thought was the best drawn character. I also feel slightly uncomfortable with books whose characters are writers; it's as though the writer inside the book can't be a fully developed character because the irony of the fact that a writer is writing about a writer keeps bouncing back and forth in an irritating way for me...and likewise, the literature academic inside the book (Michael)...it just feels too cosy...using your 'knowledge' of literature to draw up a character...and writing the facts of your knowledge into the text of your fiction...I know it's been done an infinite number of times, but it seems like a bit of a contrivance and a bit of a disease of our times...over self-conscious perhaps? Different books feed you in different ways...but this sort (though not in all its parts) demands more of your intellect than your emotions (not inherently a totally bad thing - but the balance is delicate)...it was mostly ok, occasionally brilliantly insightful and moving. I could have cried for Magnus...I think I now want a book just for him...

I'm really enjoying this...but it reminds me of something else...I might pinpoint what later. The theme...someone mysterious coming and stirring things up...haven't I read another book with this technique?..Iris Murdoch comes to the top of my mind too...perhaps the kind of people...middle class...though Murdoch's are usually a bit further up the scale. I found the first chapter a bit hard to connect with, but then the second was such an intense experience I couldn't put it down...very well written. Will come back later with more comment.

The only novel of this sort of length that I have finished in two consecutive days. I was gripped and just couldn't put it down. I love the detail in Rendell; the images just stay with you. It's the only book that I have purchased a collectible copy of to treasure - because that really is a fairly daft thing to do.