NICKY PELLEGRINO IN THE HERALD ON SUNDAY , 13 SEPTEMBER 2009
HISTORICAL NOVEL A CLASS ACT
The Crimson Rooms 
By Katherine McMahon
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $37.99
Reviewed by Nicky Pellegrino
It’s hardly surprising that this book has zoomed up the New Zealand bestseller lists. Combining costume drama and crime with a spirited heroine and a dash of feminism, it is - as they might have said back in 1924 - frightfully good.
The story is set in London in the aftermath of the First World War as a nation mourns the loss of its bright and beautiful young men. Evelyn is one of the country’s first female lawyers, devoted to her career and well aware that for girls like her there are barely any men left to marry. She lives in the family home with her aunt and mother, all of them crippled by grief at the loss of her beloved younger brother James on the battlefield. And then late one night the doorbell rings and on the doorstep is a woman who claims she is the mother of James’ son and the hitherto rather dull household is thrown into emotional disarray.
At the same time Evelyn becomes involved in two legal fights. One involves helping a working class woman whose children have been taken from her. The other is the case of a man charged with murdering his own wife. And then Evelyn meets a handsome lawyer called Nicholas Thorne and despite herself falls madly in love with him.
In the hands of a lesser writer all these plot strands might have been confusing and exhausting. But McMahon spools out her story beautifully, weaving in as she goes themes of social injustice and women’s struggle for equal rights. She portrays the various levels of the British class system particularly well: Evelyn’s stuffy upper middle class family, posh bohemians, working class girls. Even the sketchiest characters are beautifully shaped. And I loved the way Evelyn’s female eye for detail picks up clues her male superiors would never have noticed.
If you’re a fan of historical fiction and haven’t yet discovered Katherine McMahon you’ve got a treat in store. Touching and intelligently written, The Crimson Rooms is one of the best examples of the genre I’ve read in a long time.
Footnote:
By Katherine McMahon
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $37.99
Reviewed by Nicky Pellegrino
It’s hardly surprising that this book has zoomed up the New Zealand bestseller lists. Combining costume drama and crime with a spirited heroine and a dash of feminism, it is - as they might have said back in 1924 - frightfully good.
The story is set in London in the aftermath of the First World War as a nation mourns the loss of its bright and beautiful young men. Evelyn is one of the country’s first female lawyers, devoted to her career and well aware that for girls like her there are barely any men left to marry. She lives in the family home with her aunt and mother, all of them crippled by grief at the loss of her beloved younger brother James on the battlefield. And then late one night the doorbell rings and on the doorstep is a woman who claims she is the mother of James’ son and the hitherto rather dull household is thrown into emotional disarray.
At the same time Evelyn becomes involved in two legal fights. One involves helping a working class woman whose children have been taken from her. The other is the case of a man charged with murdering his own wife. And then Evelyn meets a handsome lawyer called Nicholas Thorne and despite herself falls madly in love with him.
In the hands of a lesser writer all these plot strands might have been confusing and exhausting. But McMahon spools out her story beautifully, weaving in as she goes themes of social injustice and women’s struggle for equal rights. She portrays the various levels of the British class system particularly well: Evelyn’s stuffy upper middle class family, posh bohemians, working class girls. Even the sketchiest characters are beautifully shaped. And I loved the way Evelyn’s female eye for detail picks up clues her male superiors would never have noticed.
If you’re a fan of historical fiction and haven’t yet discovered Katherine McMahon you’ve got a treat in store. Touching and intelligently written, The Crimson Rooms is one of the best examples of the genre I’ve read in a long time.
Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino, in addition to being a succcesful author of popular fiction, (her latest The Italian Wedding was published in May this year), is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on 13 September
BookloverPatricia Wright sings the role of Madam Larina in the opera Eugene Onegin
The book I love most is....
Madam Larina loves the rent book and the bank book! She is the wealthy widowed mother I’m playing in Eugene Onegin. Most of my reading is background to forthcoming performances or preparation for students at the University of Auckland. I loved the two biographies on the world’s most beautiful soprano in every way: Kiri Te Kanawa
The book I'm reading right now is…
The greatest self improvement book of all times! Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman by Christopher Ogden.
You have to admire a woman who marries Churchill’s son, becomes the father’s confidant during the war, living in 10 Downing Street, and ends up appointed by Bill Clinton as the USA Ambassador to France. Though it would be easy to view her as simply a courtesan, coached for a while by Wallace Simpson, she was successful at everything she turned her hand to. Her life is worthy of an opera.
I’m also reading/dipping into the original Pushkin verse novel on which Tchaikovsky based Eugene Onegin. The book is revered in Russia and has been called “an encyclopaedia of Russian life”. Each page has so much in it and deserves to be read slowly. And I’m also dipping into Alexander Poznansky’s book, Tchaikovsky the Quest for the Inner Man.
The book I'd like to read next is....
After the intensity of opera rehearsals and opening performance and social events in Auckland, I’ll blob out between performances in Wellington with a good Michael Connelly murder mystery.
FOOTNOTE:
The book I'd like to read next is....
After the intensity of opera rehearsals and opening performance and social events in Auckland, I’ll blob out between performances in Wellington with a good Michael Connelly murder mystery.
FOOTNOTE:
*NBR New Zealand Opera’s Genesis Energy season of Eugene Onegin, opens this Thursday,
17 September in Auckland for a season and then later in Wellington.
Full season details and booking:
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