BOOK REVIEW
‘The House on Fortune Street’ by Margot Livesey
Two cohabiting couples, four interlocking narratives and the vicissitudes of love and luck.
By Martin Rubin, L.A. Times, May 2, 2008
“The eponymous London house is not only the locus for the events quotidian and life-altering that take place within its walls but also a nexus for the myriad strings of this uncommonly attractive novel.
“At its outset, the story seems deceptively simple: Two young women, close friends since college, occupy its two apartments. Abigail, who owns the house, runs a small theatrical company; Dara, her tenant in a garden flat, is a psychologist at a counseling center. Dara is having a difficult time getting her lover to extricate himself from his former girlfriend and their child and commit himself fully to her. Abigail, though, seems blissfully happy with Sean, having succeeded in luring him away from his marriage and erstwhile soul mate.
“Pretty ordinary stuff, you might think — not exactly unexplored territory. Yet in the hands of Scots-born novelist Margot Livesey, this seemingly mundane story has such substance and freshness that it draws the reader right in. Her style — vibrant, evocative, irresistible — has a lot to do with it: ‘In the silent aftermath Sean couldn’t help noticing that his familiar surroundings had taken on a new intensity; the sage-colored walls were more vivid, the stove shone more brightly, the refrigerator purred more insistently, the glasses gleamed. His home here was in danger.’ . . .”
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