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Portobello [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Ruth Rendell
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 35.60
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Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover CDN $23.90  
Hardcover, Large Print, Oct 1 2010 CDN $35.34  
Paperback CDN $15.27  
Mass Market Paperback CDN $9.89  
Audio, CD --  

Book Description

Oct 1 2010 Center Point Platinum Mystery (Large Print)
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.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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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 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Ruth Rendell has been awarded three Edgars for best novel by the Mystery Writers of America, as well as the Grand Master Award. In England, the Crime Writers’ Association has honoured her with two Gold Dagger Awards for best novel, a Silver Dagger, and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Did not like this at all! Mar 30 2012
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Could not finish this book, and decided TV version such as the 1990s TVO series are better suited to Ruth's stories.
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By Donald Mitchell #1 HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER
Format: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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not entirely what I expected. Feb 28 2009
Format: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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