My New Year's Day treat. A multi-generational novel centered around a grand house, its inhabitants, and their sometimes surprising obsessions. Love and hate and revenge and redemption come and go in the old house.Patchett's a master at this. Beautifully, seamlessly told--the lives of all the characters from the owners to the servants intertwine--sometimes predictably, sometimes surprisingly.
Kinda like life itself.
The characters grabbed me right away and I kept turning pages in search of answers: what happened to the missing mother? will the nasty stepmother get what's coming to her? will the various children sort out their lives?
A little like a soap opera, yes, but so well done.
