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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
 
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Hardcover)

by Maggie O'Farrell (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 28.95
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox + After You'd Gone + The Book Of Negroes
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Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. O'Farrell (After You'd Gone) delivers an intricate, eloquent novel of family malice, longings and betrayal. Slim, stylish Iris Lockhart runs a dress shop in contemporary Edinburgh when she's not flirting with her stepbrother Alex or rendezvousing with her married attorney lover, Luke. Esme Lennox, meanwhile, is ready to be discharged from the soon-to-be-closed psychiatric hospital where she's been a patient (read: virtual prisoner) for 61 years. Iris becomes aware of Esme's existence when she's informed, to her disbelief, that she has been granted power of attorney over Esme by Kitty Lockhart, Iris's Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother. It turns out Kitty and Esme are sisters, but Kitty kept quiet about Esme after she was hospitalized at age 16. Layer upon layer of Lockhart family secrets are laid bare—the truth behind Esme's institutionalization, why her existence was kept a secret, and a twist involving Iris's parents—as Iris mulls over what to do with her new charge, and Esme and Kitty reconnect. O'Farrell maintains a high level of tension throughout, and the conclusion is devastating. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile

What a haunting story is that of Esme Lennox, a flighty girl locked in an Edinburgh insane asylum by her family for being troublesome. All kinds of things happen when shes released 60 years later into the care of a great-niece who never knew of her existence. Anne Flosnik does an excellent job with a story that shifts time periods and is told in a range of voices. She reads in a clear Scottish accent, shading character with subtle changes in pacing and modulation rather than creating a range of voices. Her flow of words creates a powerful story-current that pulls the listener along inexorably. Once begun, its hard to turn this book off. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Do as you are told, or else..., Oct 17 2009
By Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox (Paperback)
Most children have heard that threat at some time or other in response to something they did. They are scolded more often by a strict parent, if they tend to be of a more rebellious and independent nature. Esme Lennox was such a child while her older sister, Kitty, was the affable, docile one who fitted the expected role for a young lady of the time, the nineteen thirties. Maggie O'Farrell spins a fascinating story web around the sisters, reaching from childhood into the present when Kitty's granddaughter, Iris, is suddenly confronted with evidence of a family member she had known nothing about. Revealing the complex relationships between the sisters and their surroundings through layers of memories and flashbacks, interspersed into the narrative of the present day events, the author has created a human drama that is unique while not uncommon in its time. Her writing is spare, yet elegant and beautifully expressive. It is one of those books I found difficult to put down until the dramatic end with the lucidly developed characters lingering in my mind.

After a carefree and protected childhood in India, only overshadowed by the death of their baby brother, the girls move with their parents to Edinburgh to live with their strict Scottish grandmother. While Esme's rebellious tendencies were tolerable for a child, now as a teenager, she is constantly told how to behave and reminded that her purpose in life is to find a good husband. Esme, however, has other ideas, such as staying on in school and learning a profession. Nevertheless she accompanies Kitty to all the "afternoon teas" and society balls where prospective suitors may be encountered, until that one dance... The novel opens with it, although not really.

Society in those days, and in Britain into the 1950s, had a number of ways of dealing with rebellious young people who refused to fit into the family's schemes. Without much fuss, girls could be declared "in need for treatment" to deal with some undefined mental condition, only to disappear in an institution for years and, often forgotten, for the rest of their lives. Esme had vanished until some sixty one years later the institution closed and her grandniece Iris was landed with the decision on what to do with her. Is she mad? Could she be dangerous? Questions that Iris has to confront. And Kitty, her still living sister? Afflicted by Alzheimer's she has flashback's of her own, haphazard, confusing, and with her own version of what happened all those years ago. O'Farrell brilliantly captures the mental conditions of the two sisters, both have to return to events in their childhood and youth, that so dramatically forced their lives into directions that made their relationship difficult to reconcile. In Iris's story, while her life so far has also been complicated, - may be she is represents a modern version of Esme - her character is less well imagined and developed leaving me to give the novel 4.5 stars. [Friederike Knabe]
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3.0 out of 5 stars Not O'Farrell's Best, Sep 12 2008
By Redwessa (Edmonton, AB, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox (Paperback)
This is the third Maggie O'Farrell book I have read and it was a bit weaker than 'Distance Between Us' and 'After You'd Gone', which were both excellent. The story was a bit meandering and I found it hard to connect to the characters. Perhaps if this was the first O'Farrell book I had read, my expectations would not have been as high. It's an okay read, but don't expect it to be of the same quality as her other books.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Liked it, Jun 26 2008
By Dale Sharkey "Cindy" (PEI, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is written rather differently but I liked the style both the back and forth from past to present as well as the story from the two persons. A good read.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Rediscovering Esme Lennox
Esme and Kitty Lennox are born in colonial India. After their brother dies from typhoid fever, the family returns to Edinburgh. Read more
Published on Oct 26 2007 by J. Cameron-Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not Excellent
After reading Wally Lamb's "This much I know is True", I found this book weak. It is definetly very interesting and fast passed, but I was frustrated with the constant changes of... Read more
Published on Nov 7 2006 by C. A. Misiaszek

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