| Patricia
Cowan is an old lady living in nursing home. Her mind wanders
and she is frequently described as being confused. She remembers
two lives, the split having taken place when her boyfriend
Mark asks her to marry him. If she did then she had four children,
was known as Trish and stayed home, an unhappily married woman
in a pleasant enough world. If she said no then she was known
as Pat, had three children, was a travel writer and led a
less conventional life in a happy home while the world fell
apart. Which is real, and which imagined, or did they both
happen?
Anybody who thinks that fantasy has to be about wizards and
dragons needs to pick up a Jo Walton novel. You won’t
find either of these things, but you will find fantasy –
albeit of a very different type. This time she looks at the
possibility of parallel universes, and the choices we make
that could lead us – and the rest of the world –
down very different paths. On one level this is about Patricia’s
personal life, and the other it is about what happens outside
this. If this rather delicious idea has a fault it lies in
the rather too polemical treatment of the people and situations.
Mark makes a terrible husband, while Bee is rather too perfect.
The same can be said about the two versions of the world outside,
but this author’s strength (apart from her imagination)
is to create a big story in comparatively few words. Characters
spring to vivid life almost immediately after we have been
introduced to them, and it is impossible not to get involved.
It also makes you think about life choices and what could
have happened…fantasy to expand the true meaning of
the word. Reviews of other titles by
this author
Prize
in the Game
Tooth
and Claw
What
Makes This Book So Great
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