The Marriage of Opposites
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4,5 • 18 notes
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- 12,99 $
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- 12,99 $
Description de l’éditeur
“A luminous, Marquez-esque tale” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on a tropical island about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro—the Father of Impressionism.
Growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. Rachel’s mother, a pillar of their small refugee community of Jews who escaped the Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for being a difficult girl who refuses to live by the rules. Growing up, Rachel’s salvation is their maid Adelle’s belief in her strengths, and her deep, life-long friendship with Jestine, Adelle’s daughter. But Rachel’s life is not her own. She is married off to a widower with three children to save her father’s business. When her older husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédérick, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal that affects all of her family, including her favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France.
“A work of art” (Dallas Morning News), The Marriage of Opposites showcases the beloved, bestselling Alice Hoffman at the height of her considerable powers. “Her lush, seductive prose, and heart-pounding subject…make this latest skinny-dip in enchanted realism…the Platonic ideal of the beach read” (Slate.com). Once forgotten to history, the marriage of Rachel and Frédérick “will only renew your commitment to Hoffman’s astonishing storytelling” (USA TODAY).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hoffman (The Museum of Extraordinary Things) finds inspiration for her particular brand of magical realism in the Caribbean island of St. Thomas and the personal history of a nonfictional woman named Rachel Pomi , who lived on the colony in the 19th century. Rachel begins the story as the headstrong daughter of a French merchant, whose Jewish ancestors came to the New World in pursuit of religious freedom and found refuge under the protection of the King of Denmark, a champion of civil rights who also outlawed slavery on the island. Rachel grows up with her best friend Jestine, the beautiful daughter of her family's servant, Adelle, but upon adulthood, their paths separate. Rachel, caught up in the expectations set for her as a member of the small community, marries Isaac Petit, a widower nearly 30 years her senior with three small children, in order to help her father's business interests. She puts away her dreams of moving to Paris and accepts the role of dutiful wife, producing more children and becoming distant from Jestine, who faces her own challenges finding her place in society. When Rachel's husband dies and his nephew arrives to oversee the family business, Rachel is swept into an encompassing love that violates the community's moral code and isolates her family but produces a son, Camille, whose peculiar way of seeing foretells his role as a leader of French Impressionism. Hoffman's subject matter and her evocative writing style are a wonderful fit for this moving story, which illuminates a historical period and women whose lives were colored by hardships, upheavals, and the subjugation of personal desires.
Avis des utilisateurs
Cannot recommend enough!
I read this book on a whim and did not expect to be so taken in but it has moved me. If you are considering reading it, do yourself a favour and pick it up. I have read a lot of good books, many that have changed me and shifted my world view, but this book surprised me by how completely I fell into it. It has become a favourite for me, one I know I will read again and again. It is written so beautifully with such colourful descriptions, it will sweep you away into its world. The language used is gorgeous and the content is substantial, it grabbed me and shook me to my core.
I wish I was a better writer so that I could write a review good enough for this book.
It is a historical fiction based on the known true facts of a real woman, the mother of a famous painter. It tells her story from childhood to motherhood and into her old age. It will give you a glimpse into the raw realities and issues of her time, you learn something about the painful history of feminism, racism, her religious struggles.
It had many parts where I would read it and gasp, and put the book down to take a moment and think, gather myself before continuing. Not only for the story content, but also the writing itself. There were some parts I remember, where I was so moved that I started sobbing. I clutched at my chest and looked over at my sleeping partner beside me and thought, how blest am I, how lucky am I to be alive and young and free. I woke up the next day inspired to go out and live my life more fully.
I know It’s just a story but. Please read this book, I hope it gives you a new perspective like it has for me.