A few weeks ago, I was very much influenced in reading this book after having enjoyed so much the most delectable comments mostly from PaulaK and from many others from the Book Club section about it being a most feel good reading which was just what I needed at that point!
I mostly enjoyed it and it did make me feel good most of the time, it also annoyed me a little sometimes, unfortunately…
Despite its feel good overall quality, this book also deals with serious matters almost in a shallow way, to my own slight dissatisfaction, I must admit to; I enjoyed the superior quality of the writing, the subtle wit, the British ironic humor, the endearing characters…
I was also gnawed by the unpleasant sensation of being overly “charmed” right thru the end with its superfluous unrealistic climax!

The complexity of the subject matter combined with the intensity of the writing will easily overcome any emotional resistance the reader may oppose, this book is anything but an easy or fast-paced reading…
The story reaches the most unexpected conclusion with a twenty five pages epistolary epilogue which I wept all the way thru, it is the most moving and most stirring coda I have ever read; at the end of the Harper Perennial edition, Edmund White, the American author and literary critic, interviews Joyce Carol Oates on this novel and she confides to him: «The letters at the end of the novel, though written by me, yet have the power to bring tears to my eyes, after repeated readings, Isn't this strange!»
I am a great fan of this great American author, this is the third book from her that I read and my admiration only grows from one book to the other.