Rutherford Park

I picked up this novel by Elizabeth Cooke because the story was compared to Downton Abbey, and the writing was compared to several authors I've read and liked, including Catherine Cookson. Although the story took some time to draw me in, in the end I would say the comparisons were more than fair.

Rutherford Park is the story of the Cavendish family and their Yorkshire estate. Lord William Cavendish traces his family back for hundreds of years, but his much-younger-wife Octavia came from "trade" and was selected for her great fortune in mills, although they have over the course of their 20-year-marriage developed a fondness for each other, and have three almost-grown children. We meet them just on the verge of World War I... see, I could totally be talking about Downton Abbey right now, except that Cora came from America, not mill towns.

There are scandals and interesting below-stairs characters, too, and the house and grounds themselves are almost another character. As I said, I had difficulty getting into the story at first, and there are a lot of characters who make very brief appearances, so I found myself wondering, "which one was that again?" But by the end of the story I felt it actually ended too soon - I wanted more.

Rutherford Park

A God in Ruins

Okay, so if you've been following this blog for a while you know that I loved the last novel by Kate Atkinson I read, Life After Life, about a woman named Ursula who keeps getting reborn into the same life and living it in different ways. This novel is not a sequel, but more of a companion, and focuses on Ursula's younger brother Teddy.

Teddy is a hero of WW II, a bomber pilot who survives every mission and comes home to marry his childhood sweetheart, Nancy. Atkinson tells Teddy's story going back and forth between the past and the present, and also from various perspectives, like that of his daughter Viola. These are all richly developed, deeply real characters and I just couldn't put the book down (although I admit to skimming a bit through the more detailed bombing raids of the war).

While not as innovative as Life After Life, this is a beautifully written book that does have a surprise or two up its sleeve. I definitely recommend it.

A God in Ruins