This week's book is "The Necklace" by Cheryl Jarvis and focuses on the true story of thirteen women and how they bought a expensive diamond necklace together - to share. It follows their diferent reactions and experiences to having this necklace (Jewelia) and these women in their lives. Mum purchased it and read during her hospital stay and loved it so I was intrigued to see what my reaction would be upon reading.
I thought it was... okay. Whilst the premise of the story is great - there is plenty of jewellery I would be quite happy to own with friends - I felt that in the end, the experience of reading the novel fell flat for me. The story is structured so that each chapter focuses on a woman and her experiences over the extended period of time (three or so years) that the novel takes place but then also attempts to tell the story chronologically, a little piece at a time in each woman's chapter. Sound confusing while I'm explaining? Yeah, it was confusing to read too.
The key reason why I think it appealed more to my mother than to me is our ages. The issues these women are dealing with in their lives are, for the most part, ones that I simply can't identify with. I tend to get more involved with a book when I can identify with the themes, even if the plot is something about a barbarian warrior on a quest to bring back a object to a castle that will ultimately doom him to a certain death. In this vein, I think that you will get vastly more out of this novel if you are in later stages of life (with grown children, etc) than you will if you are just at the start of your adult journey.
2.5 stars out of 5
I thought it was... okay. Whilst the premise of the story is great - there is plenty of jewellery I would be quite happy to own with friends - I felt that in the end, the experience of reading the novel fell flat for me. The story is structured so that each chapter focuses on a woman and her experiences over the extended period of time (three or so years) that the novel takes place but then also attempts to tell the story chronologically, a little piece at a time in each woman's chapter. Sound confusing while I'm explaining? Yeah, it was confusing to read too.
The key reason why I think it appealed more to my mother than to me is our ages. The issues these women are dealing with in their lives are, for the most part, ones that I simply can't identify with. I tend to get more involved with a book when I can identify with the themes, even if the plot is something about a barbarian warrior on a quest to bring back a object to a castle that will ultimately doom him to a certain death. In this vein, I think that you will get vastly more out of this novel if you are in later stages of life (with grown children, etc) than you will if you are just at the start of your adult journey.
2.5 stars out of 5
It's an interesting idea, but I don't think there's enough weight between 'we got together and bought a necklace to share' for a whole novel. Think I'll give this one a miss!
ReplyDeleteOh I'm torn now. A friend gave this glowing reviews and I have been waiting patiently for it to come up on TradeMe but now...I'm not so sure after reading your review. Hmmm...!
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