Summary
In the broadest sense, Maggie O'Farrell is a romantic novelist, although I doubt she'd like the term. Romantic fiction suggests cheap, churned-out stories, words hammered together with cliche until the plot reaches its man-clasps-woman-finale. That's not O'Farrell's style, although there are more than a few passionate clinches, furious arguments and wind-swept heroines as her chapters gather pace.
Lest you imagine that her books are about finding a soulmate and sinking into a rosy future of king-size duvets and joint bank accounts, be aware: her tales are also history lessons in losing love, searching for love and falling out of love with everything, even life. Hers are romances laced with modern angst and ambiguity. There are no virgins or knights on white horses, but stressed, irritable, confused men and women with as many cracks in their characters as in a listed building.See the full content of this document
Extract
It's Hollow at Heart
With her first novel, After You'd Gone, which should have been sponsored by Kleenex, it pulled so many emotional chords, O'Farrell attracted readers from the ranks of the well-read who revelled in her unabashed sentimentalism. She became the acceptable...
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