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My second book by Kate O’Brien. I have mixed feelings about it. I’d been very excited to read it, but didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. It can’t have been the subject matter – I was much more interested and invested in That Lady, which is set among the aristocracy of Renaissance Spain, than in the lives of the 19th century opera singers. I was also fully prepared to love the lesbian love story, and frankly, I had to squint to find it. It was small, almost insignificant, and half of it was hidden; I’ll go further than this and say that it was more of a love triangle, and more was revealed about Diego (was that his name?) than about Louisa. Who was she? What kind of person was she? She was a cipher, without a personal history, without roots of any kind.

This might be the first deeply Catholic book I’ve ever read, where the characters are peaceful and not in much conflict with themselves or the world. (That Lady had some of it, but the focus was on different things, and so Catholicism in it was not so important, I felt.) Both Clare and Rose are religious and see everything through their religion’s lens. I don’t know if it it is soothing, or rather disconcerting, though, to see that they seem to be absolutely convinced that everything they do is more or less acceptable, that they are right to do what they do, that God would understand their unique circumstances… I don’t know if it’s the sign of the deep spiritual peace they somewhat achieved and never lost, or of hypocrisy. Don’t take me wrong, I didn’t want to see them writhe in doubt and pain, I wanted to see that their faith was of a consequence to them. There was a beautiful scene between Rose and Antonio, when she heard that he was going to marry – I would have liked to see more of that.

Kate O’Brien loves Ireland and Spain (both Catholic countries) and it shows. Ireland and Spain are good, honest, earnest, grave, and of great value. Italy, though also Catholic, is clearly too frivolous; as for France – the girls run away from France!

Another character I deeply cared about was Assunta. I wanted to know more of her and felt that she got a very bad deal. But hey, she was a servant, so who cares.

The writing is ponderous and meandering at moments, but engaging. I will read The Land of Spices next, I think.