The Tea Rose

Who knows when you'll read this post, since my stupid internet isn't working! It's my bad-computer attitude, I know it. One thing happens, I complain so the comp says, you think that's bad? And then, dude, check out Fiona's life...

The Tea Rose, Jennifer Donnelly. Her first novel, you would never know it the way she can write a scene. Certain paragraphs are so emotionally-charged, there'll be tears. Some lines are funny as hell, and they'll have the lady next to you on the train rolling her eyes at your insane giggling. Cockney dialect aplenty, reminding me of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, but without all the fecks. This is a story, like many others of the historical fic genre, of love, loss, and finding love again in East London, circa 1888. But what I actually liked most about this book was the various platonic relationships that the protagonist Fiona has with family members and friends. For instance, she marries a gay man Nick, who happens to be my favorite character, and they have the most interesting relationship: at times, hilarious - he tends to call her "old shoe" in conversation as if it were her name, which makes me like him; at other times, he becomes Fiona's conscience, screaming exactly what she's afraid to tell herself. Considering Fiona's father doesn't figure into much of the book, he still becomes a real, sympathetic character as Fiona's flashbacks of her childhood torture her and at the same time drive her on into an uncertain future. All in all, the major heartbreak of the novel doesn't hold my interest as much as many other elements do - the book has some hilarious characters, a great story with plenty of twists, period detail of the slums of East London and Jack the Ripper.

My mother-in-law read the front cover blurb from Frank McCourt and said "heartwarming novel of pain?!" Obviously she hasn't read much of the genre called "melodrama". And it's only recently that I realized I do in fact read plenty of melodrama. I semi-recently read the second installment of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (must-read material for any fantasy/his-fic reader) Dragonfly in Amber - forget my description, just get 'em. I also devoured Paullina Simons' The Bronze Horseman earlier this year, a totally involving and exciting drama of the coming-of-age of Tatiana during the Siege of Leningrad. Her relationship with Alexander, a soldier in the Red Army, is naturally star-crossed and painful as any in the genre, and this one, perhaps unlike Fiona and Joe's, is worth the price of the book.