- Paperback: 495 pages
- Publisher: McArthur & Co; 1st mmpb edition (May 20 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1552784207
- ISBN-13: 978-1552784204
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.9 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #556,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The opening line of Rosie Thomas's 15th book, If My Father Loved Me, is an intriguing one: "My father was a perfumer and a con artist". The daughter of this "grand master of deception" is Sadie, a divorced bookbinder, with two children who has carved out a calm life for herself. She loves her job and her friends and her charming daughter Lola is on the way to college. Her son, Jack, is more problematic--he's not a typical drink-and-drugs adolescent, instead he's a loner who likes bird watching and animals, but who doesn't seem overly fond of his mother.
Tricky parental situations are abound in this novel. Firstly there's Sadie's uneasy relationship with her father Ted--when Sadie's mother died "he was left with a beady-eyed and unpliant child" and Sadie was left with a father who was an expert in "bottled dreams", flirting and double-dealing, but not so hot on child care. Elsewhere friends have uneasy truces with their lover's children while divorced couples try to keep their parental roles on course.
Rosie Thomas handles all this domestic drama with compassion and kindness. The characterisation is adept and the emotional dilemmas real and involving. Add in the lovely details abut the creation of scent--descriptions of the fragrance of Jasmine in Grasse, the appeal of Ted's Mayfair shop Scentsation "a faint breath of fresh flowers and warm aromatics which conjured up worlds of glamour and privilege," and you have a perceptive and engaging novel. --Eithne Farry --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
A delightful novel which picks its way gently between poignancy and lightheartedness, this latest story from celebrated writer Rosie Thomas will be much enjoyed by her many fans. Sadie and Mel are close friends who share every detail of each other's lives except Sadie's past, which is a closed book, even to her. When her mother died Sadie's father Ted, a gifted perfumer and charming conman, neglected Sadie in favour of a succession of 'aunties'. Truth and illusion have blurred to the extent that her adult life has been marked by the belief that her father did not love her and her current difficult relationship with her son seems set to repeat the patterns of her own past. When Ted dies suddenly, Sadie embarks on her own journey to lay the ghosts of her unhappiness to rest in the hope of rescuing her life today. As we have come to expect from this author, themes of love and friendship are skilfully woven together and entangle friends and family across generations. The subtleties of her characters are gently revealed and empathy for their situations keeps the reader glued to the book. But this is not mid-life family crises in soft focus: rows with children, disappointments with friends and frustrations in work all ring true and the complications of modern life are articulated with both compassion and humour. Tragedy strikes unexpectedly at several points in the book and forces the reader to look at the issue of acute and violent loss. Not everyone can have a happy ending but the book remains optimistic and this emotional whodunit, pinned securely against real life, is a very satisfying read. (Kirkus UK)
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Boring, Boring and Boring,
By Pamela Mckinnon "Traveling Pam" (Vancouver Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: If Only My Father Loved Me (Paperback)
I was very disappointed with this book. I had to force myself to read it. I kept thinking, surely something is going to happen here, nothing did. The characters, while well written, were very weak in their natures. I thought Jack needed a good swift kick up the you know what to sort him out. This is a story of a woman trying to make amends and find out more about her father after his death. She feels he did not love her and had many hidden secrets. He had a few but they were nothing remarkable. All the other characters were weak, perhaps with the exception of her friend Mel. I found it hard slugging to get through it. Wouldn't recommend it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If My Father Loved Me,
By Sarah Wewers - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: If My Father Loved Me (Paperback)
Lovely story. Insightful treatment of father-daughter relationship. Good Characters.
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