Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Jonathan Cape Ltd (hardback) 1999
406 pages
I borrowed this book from The Mitchell Library (http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/the-mitchell-library/pages/home.aspx).
BLURB FROM THE COVER
dearest e,
I told you I would let you know-so here it is-goodbye.
I try to imagine what it would feel like if it was you-but it’s impossible to conjure the world without you, even though we’ve been apart so long.
I didn’t leave you anything. You got to live my life. That’s enough. Instead I’m experimenting-I’ve left the whole lot to the twins. I hope they’ll enjoy it.
Don’t worry, it will be okay.
Say goodbye to Jack for me.
Love, despite everything,
e
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cosy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin … but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat….
With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.
EXTRACT
ELSPETH DIED WHILE Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup. Later he would remember walking down the hospital corridor with the cup of horrible tea in his hand, alone under the fluorescent lights, retracing his steps to the room where Elspeth lay surrounded by machines. She had turned her head towards the door and her eyes were open; at first Robert thought she was unconscious.
REVIEW
I’ve wanted to read more of Niffenegger since her novel; The Time Traveller’s Wife blew me away. Her Fearful Symmetry did not disappoint.
I loved Her Fearful Symmetry. Niffenegger offers a unique ghost story. I’m an only child and I found Julia and Valentina’s relationship as mirror twins fascinating. I think Niffenegger did a great of portraying their mutual suffocation. Valentina changes in London and want to be free of Julia to be her own person and do her own thing. Julia wants just the opposite and does everything she can to keep them together. The ghost story element was quite low key. The twins and Robert don’t seem fazed by the fact Elspeth still lingers in the flat and act like she’s a sort of interesting pet. I thought this was interesting rather than a traditional ghost story that would have everyone cowering in the corner and peeing their pants. Elspeth isn’t really a threat so why should they be terrified. I liked all the characters. I was disturbed when Robert reads the letter Elspeth left him and discovers the truth. Niffenegger surprised me. I found Her Fearful Symmetry really sad at the end and the novel took a dark turn I wasn’t really expecting. Elspeth turns out to be pretty nasty after all. Her Fearful Symmetry is a great book. Niffenegger is one my list of must read authors.
RATING
