- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday Canada (Dec 30 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385665423
- ISBN-13: 978-0385665421
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #198,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“Rendell is one of the greatest novelists of our age.” — The Globe and Mail
“Superb.… Portobello is as brilliant as anything Rendell has ever written.”
— Evening Standard
“Rendell has a Dickensian empathy, informed by a prodigious love of London life. Her account, bursting with colour an and vitality, is a treat to read.”
— Independent (UK)
“The suspense builds and the mistress of the misbegotten never loses her grasp on the story.”
— The Globe and Mail
“Superb.… Portobello is as brilliant as anything Rendell has ever written.”
— Evening Standard
“Rendell has a Dickensian empathy, informed by a prodigious love of London life. Her account, bursting with colour an and vitality, is a treat to read.”
— Independent (UK)
“The suspense builds and the mistress of the misbegotten never loses her grasp on the story.”
— The Globe and Mail
Book Description
From crime fiction’s reigning queen comes a diabolically intricate tale that weaves together the lives of very different people in the vibrant part of London known as Portobello.
Fifty-year-old Eugene Wren inherited from his father an art gallery near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps, and children’s clothing. But he decided to move to a more upmarket site. Eugene was, perhaps, too secretive for his own good. He also had an addictive personality. But he had cut back radically on his alcohol consumption, and had given up cigarettes. Which was just as well, considering he was dating a doctor. For all his good intentions, though, there was something he didn’t want her to know.
One day, Eugene comes across an envelope containing a sum of money. Rather than report the matter to the police, he writes a note and sticks it up on a lamppost near his house. This note would link a number of very different people–each with their own obsessions, problems, dreams, and despairs. And through it all the hectic life of Portobello bustles on.
Fifty-year-old Eugene Wren inherited from his father an art gallery near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps, and children’s clothing. But he decided to move to a more upmarket site. Eugene was, perhaps, too secretive for his own good. He also had an addictive personality. But he had cut back radically on his alcohol consumption, and had given up cigarettes. Which was just as well, considering he was dating a doctor. For all his good intentions, though, there was something he didn’t want her to know.
One day, Eugene comes across an envelope containing a sum of money. Rather than report the matter to the police, he writes a note and sticks it up on a lamppost near his house. This note would link a number of very different people–each with their own obsessions, problems, dreams, and despairs. And through it all the hectic life of Portobello bustles on.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Did not like this at all!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Portobello (Mass Market Paperback)
Could not finish this book, and decided TV version such as the 1990s TVO series are better suited to Ruth's stories.
4.0 out of 5 stars
More About Six Degrees of Separation than Mystery or Suspense,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Portobello (Hardcover)
"Your wickedness affects a man such as you,And your righteousness a son of man." -- Job 35:8 (NKJV) Portobello is an eloquently written novel built around wanting to demonstrate how much we affect one another's lives through simple decisions and small contacts. While we tend to see ourselves as firmly in control of our lives and our fate, it isn't necessarily so. Part of Ms. Rendell's subtext is to suggest that those who are better off materially may, in fact, be more pitiful than their poorer counterparts who make the best of whatever hand has been dealt them. Because of the heavy slant towards portraying how "neighbors" affect one another, the details of the story seem almost beside the point at times. That approach doesn't make for the most compelling story, but rather gives the reader room to re-examine his or her own life. I must admit that I found the physical descriptions in the book to be stunningly well written. The character development seemed shallow and not-quite credible in comparison. As a result, the story didn't quite convince me to suspend my disbelief. If you enjoy stories that make you identify with one or more of the characters, you probably won't like this book as much as I did. If you are a Ruth Rendell fan, you may be a bit disappointed in comparison with her earlier works.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not entirely what I expected.,
By
This review is from: Portobello (Hardcover)
In 'Portobello', Rendell creates an elegant tale of interwoven lives. Readers are shown the profound impact that strangers can, without realization, have on one another's lives.The setting of Portobello Road and Notting Hill is vividly rendered, almost to the point that it is another character. The suspense is extremely subdued. I repeatedly found myself expecting it to peak higher than it did. Having not read Rendell's work before, perhaps this is a feature of her writing for which I was not entirely prepared.
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