Friday 23 March 2012

I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck



This book tells the fictional story of Nina reminiscing over her and her husband's (Philip's) life through one night after she finds him dead in their bedroom.

She flits from one memory to another before maybe going back to the same time of the previous memory before moving on again, in a sort of stream of consciousness way. For me this made it a rather fragmented book with the best bits being when a memory was expanded in full before she moved on to the next recollection. (This approach means that if you put the book down you may forget characters by the time they reappear.

Memories mainly focus on their times spent abroad, notably in Paris. In fact this is where they met and there are lots of little bits in French so a passing knowledge of French would be useful (Italian and Spanish also feature but not to the same extent). There are also a few imagined scenes where Nina fills in the gaps, for example Philip's time spent with a woman called Sofia.

Lastly there is a lot of mathematical talk. Maybe Philip is a really boring guy as Maths is pretty much all he talks about. Or maybe he is a really interesting guy because he has such knowledge of his topic. Make up your own mind. Or perhaps that is unfair as he also has an interest in yachting, and an interest in Nina of course, and their daughter Louise (although there are not that many memories with her in which is perhaps a surprise).

So a fragmented story although well-written and quite a quick read too.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)

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