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[/amazon_link]Title : The House at Tyneford
Author : Natasha Solomon
Genre : Historical Romance
Publisher : Plume
Pages : 368
Rating : 2.5/5
“The House at Tyneford” is a historical novel, set amid the upheaval of the Second World War. Elise Landau is a Viennese Jewess living with her parents Anna and Julian, a renowned opera singer and author respectively, and sister Margot. Tremors of war, and the fear of Hitler’s Jew-hating army over-running Europe causes the family to scatter. Elise is sent to England to work as a parlor maid. Her sister Margot emigrates to America while her parents wait for their exit visa. Elise, having till now lived a comfortable and wealthy life, waited on by servants, finds herself a member of the serving class. She is also homesick and worried for her parents.
Elise’s work is hard, and she is admonished by the butler and the housekeeper to devote herself to her duties. Her employer Mr. Rivers is kind and treats Elise with extra gentility when he learns that Elise’s father is the author Julian Landau. Elise also meets Mr. Rivers son, Kit Rivers when he is home, and the two fall in love. However when war breaks out, Kit enlists, much to his father’s displeasure. Kit leaves and Elise now finds herself praying for his safe return as well as the safe passage of her parents to America.
This is quite an atmospheric novel. As the cover so beautifully illustrates, Tyneford is a scenic place, and Solomon describes it well. In her words, she manages to convey the emotion of its characters and the fear, love or longing they feel. The characters were interesting – Elise and her family are described well, although I found Kit etched out a tad superficially. While this is a decent read, I found it predictable – I could tell quite early on how this was going to end; Mr. Rivers (senior) was too kind and gentle for the story to tilt any other way. Thus I wasn’t really motivated to finish it, although finish it I did.
The other issue I had was the depiction of Elise’s character as the “cosseted” heroine, the poor little rich girl – she has to but appear for everything to fall into place. And yes, it doesn’t always happen that way – she has her own hardships to deal with – but that is the lingering impression I was left with. And it is always a bummer when the main protagonist of the novel appears to have fate on her side rather than gumption and spine.
The book’s cover hints at similarities with Downton Abbey (which I love) but I didn’t find this to be true. As I write this review “The House at Tyneford” is on NPR’s Paperback BestSeller List at #5. I wouldn’t rate it as highly; while the language is polished, the book didn’t work for me.
