Review : The Hand that First Held Mine

Posted by kay on July 17, 2010 4:32 am in 4.5 stars reads | 12 comments

The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
Pages : 341
Genre : Fiction
Stand Alone
My Rating :

From the Back of the Book :

Lexie Sinclair cannot stay. Enclosed within her parents’ genteel country lawn, she yearns for more. She makes her way to the city, and meets a magazine editor, Innes, a man unlike any she has ever imagined. He introduces her to the thrilling world of bohemian postwar London, and she learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to live her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives—all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant by a man wholly unsuitable for marriage or fatherhood, she doesn’t hesitate for a minute to have the baby on her own.

Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. Her boyfriend, Ted, traumatized by nearly losing her in labor, begins to recover lost memories. He cannot place them. But as they become more disconcerting and return more frequently, we discover that something connects these two stories—these two women—something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

I have to start this review with two confessions : the first one is that I am tempted to give five stars to this book if only for its physical appearance. How shallow I am! But not only is the cover image delicate and melancholic, the book’s jacket is a soft vellum sheet that makes it nice to the eyes and to the touch. There is the first picture of the blondish woman on the jacket, and when you take it off, the picture of the second woman is revealed. Oh, how beautiful! I want to carry this book around like a purse all day, every day.

But I’m pretty sure what you want to hear about is what’s under the cover, and here comes my second confession : I am a huge Maggie O’Farrell fan. I have loved each of her books, and I am not sure my opinion is quite objective at this point. I cherish her books like precious things, and she’s certainly one of the few authors’ writing with which I connect so well emotionally. I “oohed!” and “aahed!” all through her books, cried and laughed and admired how observant and detailed her writing is. See? She would have to write something really, really bad for me not to like it.

The Hand that First Held Mine isn’t my favorite of her books, but really close to. She is so good at describing the psychological state of her characters that I felt like I knew them, inside and out, the good and the bad. She once again uses a dual narration, but it comes together is a beautiful way, echoing each other without feeling repetitive, and tied in the end with just enough subtlety. There is something amazing about the fact that O’Farrell wrote two different stories that are only slightly connected, without giving the impression that you are reading two completely different books.

The Hand that First Held Mine is a beautiful, tragic and emotional story about family and love and motherhood. O’Farrell presents with a gorgeous prose the fragility and the strength of the ties between family members, and how heavy secrets can be to carry, especially around those you love.

This book left a huge impression on me, and I had a hard time getting into another book after reading it. I can’t foresee the future, but I’m pretty sure this will be on on my “Top of 2010” list.