I always enjoy Helen Dunmore's writing and this novel is another to add to the list of satisfactory reads.

Ruby is a character to enjoy. Abandoned as a baby, with no ties to her parents, Rebecca makes her own family life with Joe, a historian and good friend; her husband Adam, Joe's friend; and Ruby, her beloved daughter. All is well until..... Well read the book and find out. ( )

Good writing but the structure does it no favours, 27 Jun. 2016

This review is from: Mourning Ruby (Paperback)
Narrated (at first) by Rebecca, this is the story of the loss of her young daughter Ruby. I was lent this by an acquaintance, didn't think it would be my thing at all, but have to say it was much better than expected and Helen Dunmore sure can write.

Nonetheless the structure of the novel was very strange. Rebecca is an extremely wishy-washy creature; eclipsed in interestingness by her rather lovely boss. Mr Damiano is - rather improbably - a one-time trapeze artiste, now owner of a conglomerate of boutique hotels. I did hope she would leave her (also wishy-washy ) husband and find love with the charming hotelier...

The final part of the novel is a story written by Rebecca's friend/ lover Joe. So well-written is it, that the reader completely forgets Rebecca and gets caught up in the happenings of World War I France: the English airmen and the French prostitutes.
Thus by the time one reaches the end, Rebecca is far from the reader's mind as s/he is caught up in the infinitely more riveting one of Florence and Will, and one begrudges Ms Dunmore dragging us back to the main storyline. ( )

Best moeilijk telezen, doordat het verhaal in drie gedeeltes is opgebouwd. de hoofdpersoon, Rebecca, is door haar moeder te vondeling gelegd. hierdoor heeftvze veel vragen, waarvgeen antwoord op komt. Vervolgens woonde ze samen met een schrijver, Joe, die zielsveel van haar hield, ze hadden geen liefdesrelatie. na haar huwelijk krijgt ze een echt gezin, echtervhaar dochtertje Ruby verongelukt wanner ze vijf jaar is. Hierna gaat ze alleen verder. Uiteindelijk lijkt haarvman haar weer op te zoeken. ( )

How does this happen? How can an author who writes such stellar books such as The Seige write a dud like Mourning Ruby.

One hundred pages into it and I quit, counted my loss and moved along. It was good enough to keep hoping that it would get better. Alas, I was tricked.

Checking other reviews, I find the same thoughts as mine, ie too many plots, too many images that float all over kingdom come, too much rambling and way too much convolution.

A tragic loss of a five year old child is a substantial plot, yet Dunmore flies all over the place with snipets of characters and their thoughts. If the thoughts don't add to the story, who cares?

I hate it when I'm left feeling stupid because I didn't comprehend what the heck she was trying to say.

I have no idea what Dunmore was hoping to accomplish. If she was trying to be highly intellectual or highly artistic, she failed.

NOT recommended.

As an audio I kept listening but I don't think I would have kept reading it if I had tried it in book form. It was so complete in the description of this horrible accident and the resulting consequences---almost way too much so. And then there were the stories within the story so that we could come full circle.

It is a disturbing listening experience---more than you really want to hear about one person's grief---although eventually we add the husband's grief. It's really not something you want to learn about but as the writer says, we, the reader(s) (listeners) are just walking along with Rebecca, listening to her tell us her story. ( )