Skip to main content

Review: Every Eye, by Isobel English


Pages: 119

Original date of publication: 1956

My edition: 2007 (Persephone)

Why I decided to read: browsing the Persephone catalogue

How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription, June 2010

As I was browsing my TBR shelves for something to take with me on a business trip (traveling theme and all of that), my eye (no pun intended) was drawn to Every Eye, a slim novella about a woman who marries a much younger man and takes a holiday to Ibiza.

The novel isn’t so much about the holiday as it is about the journey, and it’s a novel that is “based on the premise that life is lived forwards but understood backwards” (from the preface written by Isobel English’s husband, Neville Braybrooke). There are many flashbacks to Hatty’s affair with a much older man, and her relationship with her step-aunt that illuminate certain things about Hatty. There’s not much action per se in this book, but there are some absolutely gorgeous descriptions of the scenery as Hatty and Stephen travel along that make me want to book a flight to Ibiza right now!

I am generally not a novella reader; I prefer thick, juicy novels with lots of plot and character development. But this book, for all its shortness, packs a lot into it. You can see Hatty’s development as a person quite clearly, from her unsuitable liaison with an older man to her wiser marriage to Stephen. The novel illustrates to perfection the modern saying that hindsight is 20/20. The tone of the book is very cold, and I thought going into it that I would hate the narrator for being so detached; but the juxtaposition between Hatty’s coldness and the warmth of Ibiza really works for this story.

This is Persephone no. 18. Endpaper above.

Labels:

Comments

Teresa said…
I read this for Persephone week last year (after getting a copy in the shop while on holiday in London the week before). I really enjoyed it. The descriptions and the character development are amazing!
February 25, 2011 at 5:42 PM
Paperback Reader said…
The descriptions of the Balearic island are so evocative! Every Eye is gentle but thought-provoking at the close. I agree about the juxtaposition between the sunny backdrop at Hatty's relationship with Cynthia.

Thank you for joining us for Persephone Reading Weekend! Enjoy.
February 25, 2011 at 5:59 PM
Col (Col Reads) said…
I love novellas -- and this one sounds like the perfect thing to take on a long weekend! It's on my TBR. Thanks for your great review.
February 26, 2011 at 5:23 PM
Cristina (Rochester Reader) said…
I really enjoyed your review and I think it is superbly written. I want to read this now - it seems so pertinent. Another for my TBR list! Thank you :-)
February 26, 2011 at 5:56 PM
Joan Hunter Dunn said…
ooh could this be a perfect gift for a friend who loves Persephone and is going to Ibiza for her honeymoon? I'd not heard of this before I shall now find out more. Tnhank you.
February 27, 2011 at 6:34 AM
Anonymous said…
I did not know there was such a thing as a Persephone subscription. I should remember that for a birthday present or something. Sometimes I really need a shorter read and this one sounds perfect for that.
February 27, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.
194 comments
Read more

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars...
115 comments
Read more

Review: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y.K. Lee

The Piano Teacher is a complicated novel. On the surface, it’s about a love affair between two British ex-patriots in Hong Kong in 1952-3. Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong with her husband Martin at a time when the world is still recovering from WWII; Claire takes up work as a piano teacher for the daughter of a wealthy Chinese family, where she meets Will Truesdale, the Chens’ enigmatic chauffeur. The book jumps back in time between the 1950s and the beginning of WWII, when Will is interned in Stanley, a Hong Kong camp for enemies of Japan. On “the outside” is Tudy Liang, Will’s beautiful Eurasian lover. There’s no doubt that Lee’s writing is beautiful. But there’s something lacking in this short, terse novel that I can’t quite put my finger on. First, I think it’s the tenses she uses when taking about each story: that which is set in the 1950s is in the past tense, while the war scenes are talked about in the present tense (confusing, no?) The interpersonal relationships of the m...
12 comments
Read more