I read Iron Curtain by #VesnaGoldsworthy. A page-turner set in the 1980s. A young privileged 'red princess' from a poor unnamed central European country elopes to London in the name of love. The sense of displacement has echoes of the Patricia Engel book I read just before this. There's also enjoyable farce here even if the clichés about the UK are laid on a little thick at times. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads
Just finished Lucy by the Sea by #ElizabethStrout, the last of the #LucyBarton series. Set, and I guess written, in lockdown. Not convinced either is conducive to good art. Didn't enjoy as much as the first installment. My main thoughts were that it is striking that Lucy, despite her success as a writer, has little agency over her own life and where it goes. And perhaps that shows us the effects of earlier poverty and poor parenting are hard to shake off. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads