A Lifetime Burning by Linda Gillard

[Linda Gillard]

It's a book that is almost impossible to describe, and definitely has quite difficult themes.

 

When promoting this book I did have to try to describe it and of course I had to do that without giving too much away about the tortuous plot. This is what I wrote on my website:

 

"I took five women from three generations of the same family and used their interwoven stories as a vehicle for looking at what it has meant to be a woman at different times in the latter half of the 20th Century - what choices, opportunities and limitations they faced. What you could make of your life depended largely, it seemed to me, on when you were born."

 

I also tried to cast some light on the book by quoting this poem on my site, HEREDITY by Thomas Hardy:

 

I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.

The years-heired feature that can

In curve and voice and eye

Despise the human span

Of durance - that is I;

The eternal thing in man,

That heeds no call to die.

[Linda Gillard]

Gyre, you totally "got" what I was trying to do with ALB! Thanks very much for your review. For all its sensational elements, it's basically a book about compassion and that's what I wanted the reader to feel: "There but for the grace of God go I".

 

And for the record: I am not a twin. And I don't have a brother.

 

I'm thinking about starting a discussion thread over on Facebook where I have a fan page. Readers do seem to like discussing these characters (don't we, Chrissy & Chesilbeach? ) but the spoiler highlights must be very frustrating for other forum members.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Linda Gillard

[Weave]

Gyre, you totally "got" what I was trying to do with ALB! Thanks very much for your review. For all it's sensational elements, it's basically a book about compassion and that's what I wanted the reader to feel: "There but for the grace of God go I".

 

And for the record: I am not a twin. And I don't have a brother.

 

I'm thinking about starting a discussion thread over on Facebook where I have a fan page. Readers do seem to like discussing these characters (don't we, Chrissy & Chesilbeach? ) but the spoiler highlights must be very frustrating for other forum members.

 

Thanks Linda, I did feel compassion for the characters and with regards to facebook, its an excellent idea but if you are concerned about spoilers, you could ask people to put *potential spoiler alert* before their posts.

 

[Weave]

Me again (sorry everyone)

 

 

I just thought of something else and I hope it makes sense. I know the minute that people hear the word incest there would have been different reactions because it is a very taboo subject but Linda, I feel you have put a face to the subject because every case is not the same and sometimes there is a lot more to it. What happens between Flora and Rory was inevitable but the ripple effect it caused lead to lives being ruined.

 

You highlighted brilliantly the effects of secrets within a family, which I could relate to in so many ways, secrets come out.

 

[Inver]

I read it without having any inclination as to the

subject matter

[Weave]

I read it without having any inclination as to the

subject matter

 

Me too, I did not realise what the subject was about either, its a very discussion worthy book.

[Linda Gillard]

Help! Can someone remind you what you type to hide spoilers? It's months since I've done it and can't remember!

[Michelle]

http://bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/faq.php?faq=bcf#faq_a7

[Linda Gillard]

Cheers, Michelle!

 

 

The incest is obviously not meant to come as a surprise. Most readers can sense what's going on, but I think people don't realise the twins will actually get down to it, or in what a horrible way it will happen. But it's not a book about incest. I was pretty upset when some readers had a very adverse reaction and dismissed it as "a nasty book about incest".

(ALB has lost me 2 friends. It was nearly 3, but we made up!) I was told by my agent I'd never get a US or German edition because of the subject matter.

 

What fascinates me is, there are bookcases full of misery memoirs which sell in shedloads and they contain far more shocking things than ALB. Would readers have been as shocked (or moved) by ALB if it had been (auto)biography? Is it possible ALB is more shocking because it's fiction? If so, why?!

 

 

Some readers have conjectured that ALB is shocking because I don't condemn the incestuous twins or pull any punches. (In some books with bro-sis incest as a theme they turn out to be 1/2 bro-sis or not bro-sis at all, or the sex is not consensual, all of which makes it easier for the reader to process.)

 

It was difficult to research because there's not much in print about it and it's not the kind of experience that people share at coffee mornings (!) but there is a phenomenon known as Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) which accounts for the fact that relatives who have never met fall in love surprisingly often - brothers & sisters, mothers & sons, fathers & daughters. There are some tragic stories of people who married, then found out they were brother/sister, etc.

 

One last nugget and then I'll try to shut up and confine my ramblings to my fan page on Facebook... A male reader of ALB said to me, "Any man who tells you he never thought about sleeping with his sister is lying."

 

 

 

[Weave]

 

Thanks Linda, that is exactly what I was trying to say, the subject was there but what happened between the twins was pretty shocking.

 

I did not think more about incest after the initial reaction of the twins furthering their relationship, for me it was more about the family and how it affected them and the compassion that was there, all the characters despite their flaws cared about each other and loved each other, for me the most heartbreaking part of the book was Hugh, how he struggled with who he was but I liked by the end of the book that he had found his way to being happier.

 

I don't think its a horrible book, the subject is one factor, a important factor. it is much more than that and Linda, you are correct, there is worse books on the shelves.

 

[Inver]

Recently lent this one to a fellow bookcrossing friend and she said....

 

'Lent to me by a bookcrossing friend.

Quite complex themes dealt with in a way that, once you had worked out who was who, made it very readable. In fact, once I got into the book, I found it hard to put down. Good job it was a wet and miserable day in the October holidays! '

 

I guess she like it