I was a little late to the party with The Time Traveler's Wife
but fell in love with it. I heard Audrey Niffenegger read a section of Her Fearful Symmetry
during the Iowa City Book Festival last year and thought it sounded fantastic. I love ghost stories and I trusted Niffenegger's ability to create a complicated and original story. Right after the reading though I heard from several others who were disappointed in the book and decided to put it off. And put it off. And put it off some more. In the end I got the audio version of the book because I was afraid reading the book would be too painful.
The story was great. It's about two twins, Valentina and Julia, who move to London from Chicago after their mother's twin dies of cancer. Their mother, Edwina, and her sister, Elspeth, had a falling out sometime that no one really knows anything about. Due to the falling out Elspeth writes in her will that Valentina and Julia must live in the London apartment for one year but their parents cannot come into the apartment. While Valentina and Julia live in London they make friends with Elspeth's lover Robert and another neighbor Martin, who is obsessive compulsive. The characters were extremely well written, unique, and interesting. I particularly loved Robert because he reminded me of Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife.
Valentina and Julia are glued at the hip but throughout the story you learn more about Valentina's desire to separate from her sister and Julia's obsession with taking care of Valentina. You also learn that Edwina and Elspeth had a similar relationship which played a role in their falling out.
Valentina and Julia are not the only people living in the apartment, however; Elspeth's ghost is present and trying to communicate with them.
So I have a story that I think well sums up my feelings about Her Fearful Symmetry. As I said earlier I listened to the audio version of this, which was divided into two parts. I didn't know this when I started it though and when I reached the end of the first half I thought the story was over. I didn't understand why everyone thought the book was so horrible. I thought it was just the right length, and had a great ending. Then I discovered there was a second half to the book. Once I started to listen I understood what all of the groans were about.
The first 80 percent of the book was all good and fine, but I felt the ending dragged and ruined my enjoyment of the characters. Overall I enjoyed the audio, but the reader used different voices for different characters and I found her incredibly difficult to listen to when she was reading Valentina's character. She made her voice very high and mousy, which was fitting for the character but horrible for my ears.
I think the book is worth reading if you consider yourself a big fan of Audrey Niffenegger. Of course, if you consider yourself that you've probably already read it. I'm not sure I would have finished the book if I hadn't listened to it on audio, and I think if you skip this one you won't miss out on much.
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