Bitter Orange Kindle Edition

Do you know any such people? Or perhaps you’ve briefly encountered them? Those people whose appeal is so compelling that, even when their actions are dubious or dishonest, the desire to be in their circle overcomes common sense and sometimes even your scruples? And, if you’re lonely, the allure is even more powerful.Claire Fuller’s dark and dramatic novel, Bitter Orange tells the story of a friendless 39-year-old woman whose longing to belong and be loved leads to the entanglement in the lives of a gorgeous, hedonistic couple – and evolves into a tale of lust, envy and greed.Old and ill, Frances Jellico is languishing in an ‘end-life-bed’ in an unnamed institution where she’s visited by a mysterious vicar who is determined to extract a confession from her. Bitter Orange is the revelation he’s after, but Frances’s story is murkier, more tortuous and less conclusive than he probably expected.Twenty years earlier, Frances was commissioned by the absent American owner of a dilapidated English country house to write a report on the follies (that is, the decorative structures) of its garden. After nursing her bedridden (recently-deceased) mother for ten years, socially awkward Frances was grateful to escape London and to have a place to stay. To her surprise though, a couple – young and beautiful, Cara, and Peter, a little older, but “an Apollo” nonetheless – occupied the rooms below hers. Peter, it emerged, had been employed by the American to report on the inside of the house. To save money, he’d decided they’d live in the house.The dashing couple befriended Frances, who was delighted to finally experience friendship. As they grew closer, she discovered Peter and Cara were not husband and wife, but were united by an undisclosed trauma. Tension mounted as Frances (the narrator for most of the novel) was drawn into Peter and Cara’s lives, and fell in love with Peter. Such was her obsession with the couple, that even when her conscience warned her otherwise, Frances went along with their depraved decisions.Cleverly eking out clues on the way to an unexpected finale with numerous twists, the author moves easily between the time of the story and to Frances’s deathbed. She also creates a vivid and detailed setting, and fascinating characters with equally interesting back-stories.Bitter Orange is a dramatic and engaging psychological thriller that kept me on my toes until the very end. Fuller is an accomplished writer and I’ve made a note to look out for her other two novels, Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons.

I can’t write a synopsis of this book. No plot description could do it justice. Claire Fuller has written a transcendent work of fiction. I have just finished the book, and when I finished all I could say was, “My God!”.Fuller has a gift for describing a place and time so completely that the reader can SEE every detail so clearly that one feels that she is actually there, part of the scene, the fly on the wall, as it were. Self deception and lies are a major theme, as is fantasy and loss.Three-quarters into the book, the reader is given a shock so great that the spell is broken and one can now glimpse reality interwoven with the dreams and memories . The new reality is stark, devoid of the vivid description that permeates the dream segments; both the colorful and black and white are interwoven through the denouement. The contrast is welcomed because the reader is loathe to fully let go of the vivid experiences of the three main characters, yet yearns to know the final consequences of the choices made.The actual truth behind the web of delusion is never fully given; it is left to the reader to ponder what is truth and what is a lie. The ending is bittersweet. Unforgettable.This a book for anyone who has questioned the truths behind the memories that we hold. And don’t we all? I am not sure if this work has been recognized as the jewel that it is. I would recommend it to teachers of fiction writing, or writing seminars. Of course, anyone who enjoys a book that envelops her in great writing without the slog through the “Great Books” will treasure this book. The works of Carlos Luis Zafon and Louis De Bernieres come to mind as possible comparisons. There is much to chew on hereI will not forget this book. It is one of those books that will stay with me. One worthy of rereading. A beautiful work. Unforgettable.

I did enjoy this book, it has all the ingredients of a popular formula - a woman looks back at the one golden summer of her life, the only time she was loved and had friends. Ingredients include a romantic sinister setting, food, alcohol, a few cryptic notes, some secret spying, an unreliable narrator and some star-crossed lovers. However the formula is not well-executed, because I didn't get much of an image of the house compared to Manderley (Rebecca), for example, which I could navigate tomorrow if I found myself there. Also for people who sat around talking so much about their past (or imaginary past) they didn't put much thought into their actions on the day.There are a few missing links in the story. Frances, the narrator, had presumably gone her whole life without making a friend and there's no real reason for this apart from an unpleasant mother. For someone so isolated without much education, she somehow is offered a job that requires some specialist expertise, demonstrating that she must have had some level of confidence and drive... but nothing of that is shown. There's no logic to why she is suddenly so comfortable with these strange neighbours, when she must have had neighbours and schoolmates in the past. Also why was she so passive about what was clearly going on with all those beautiful objects? As it's a familiar formula, just a few extra sentences here or there might have smoothed out the logic.The other thing that bothered me was the timeline. Frances was 39 in the story's opening, yet 20 years later, it sounds like she's on her deathbed as an elderly woman. It's a long way to the end of the story to figure out that detail. I think the story would have been more logical if she had been reminiscing on her sickbed from 40 years later.SPOILER ALERT:I don't know how she got permission to be buried where she was, after all those years and in those circumstances!!