BOOK REVIEW: The Loving Spirit
"I’ll not bide in Heaven, nor rest here in my grave. My spirit will linger with the ones I love - an’ when they’re sorrowful and feared in themselves, I’ll come to them; and God Himself won’t keep me."
-The Loving Spirit by Dapne du Maurier
Title: THE LOVING SPIRIT
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Pages: 404
Genre: Family saga
Publisher: Virago Press
The loving spirit is family saga that unfolds through generations. Each generation has its own characters built up over their strong will to exercise freedom and the love for the sea.
Janet Coombe and Thomas Coombe are the founders of the family. Janet Coombe a girl with a soul for freedom and adventures and love for the sea marries her cousin Thomas Coombe suppressing her soul's freewill but never extinguishing them. From her its passed on to her child Joseph.
Its through her son Joseph her old love for sea is set on fire. Her obsession with one of her sons is indeed the building block of the destruction to be caused for generations. Joseph wishes to see the same wilderness in the eyes of his son Christopher but nevertheless leads to a terrible failure. With Christopher the story becomes a bit emotionally rocking but races through to another generation. Jennifer, Christopher's daughter brings the whole saga to a complete circle releasing the evil and making a happy ending.
My thoughts:
⭒Author's language is lucid and writting indicative of her brilliancy as a writer. In her writting, I felt she has succeeded in making the readers look at the story through the eyes of reality.
⭒Her descriptions are eye-catching spare for a few extra minute details that were quite bothering excess.
⭒From reader's point of view one sees an unusual sort of relationship between mother, Janet and son, Joseph that at times made it uncomfortable to read but nevertheless delivers to the readers mind the closeness of the souls.
⭒Narrative spans through generations and flows steadily with no bumps. It shifts easily.
⭒There's a hint of magical realism at places in the book that just adds to the "spirit flavour". But I won't mind saying that it wasn't enough to make up for the title of the book.
Rating: 3.5⭐ /5⭐
It's a great book going by it being a debut novel of Daphne du Maurier and recommended for sure. Hope to read more of her books!
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