Started and stopped this novel a couple times. Glad I finished it but I would be hesitant to recommend it to others.

A couple years ago, I had a book of lists of books to try, on a bunch of subjects, in alphabetical order. As a means to try and read more stuff outside my usual range, I picked two of the topics, one from near the beginning of the book and one from near the end. This is one of the half dozen books from the "Adoption" category. This is the 3rd one I've gotten around to reading, and the third one I haven't been particularly enthused about. It's a story, really, about how people never really talk to each other, how people keep secrets, and how the rich are very different. I get really frustrated by people who never do say what they mean, never do work out their problems. I will keep trying to tackle the rest of the books I picked out, but mostly they are confirming that I like my genre fiction, my murder mysteries and science fiction, a lot better than "hauntingly beautiful" stories that are supposed to be tragic and then a "heartwarming" bit at the end. Ugh. Well enough written, but not for me.

How could I love one of this author's books (The Rope Walk) so much and not like any of her others? This started out well: Jewish immigrant and his son from Austria by way of England becomes a driver for a wealthy man in upstate New York. The flashbacks to pre-WWII Austria were interesting at first but the whole pace of the book was a bit plodding to me. I do have to give her props for writing about vastly different characters and settings in each of her novels.

strange, and depressing, but strangely mesmerising. didn't much like the end though; it left me a bit unsatisfied