Of all books that I have read by Anita Shreve, this is the one that is my least favorite. While I appreciate Shreve as a writer, this story did not particularly speak to me.
This book begins with a couple who has been invited to climb Mount Kenya by their landlord and his wife with two of their friends. Right away, I was set on edge because of the relationship between these six people. The main character, Margaret, seems unhappy with her husband, her landlord, Arthur, is a bossy rich guy, and his wife, Diana, is a snobby, mean rich woman who is suspicious of Arthur's feelings toward Margaret, and the other couple seems to be in the same class as Arthur and Diana. During the beginning of the book, I kept wondering why the heck Margaret was wasting her time with these people! During the climb up the mountain, thought, tragedy strikes and a life is lost. This impacts Margaret and her husband's relationship, obviously, but causes them to grow apart. This aspect of the story also bothered me a bit. I did not like the way that the two become jealous of each other and start lying back and forth. It was painful to have to read about a couple going through this.
The good parts of the book, though, were when Shreve describes Margaret's work. She is a free lance photographer who is hired by a newspaper that speaks too much of the truth, eventually putting people in danger. Because of Margaret's unique position, she is able to view her surroundings and get to know the people of Africa as she and her husband move from place to place.
I also found it interesting the details that Shreve included in this book. In the interview afterward, Shreve said that she did, in fact, live for a time in Africa, working as a journalist, and also climbed Mount Kenya. When authors write based on experience or research, they are able to include realistic deatils that fill out a story, which allows the reader to see the reality of the story. While this book was not my favorite of Shreve's, I did enjoy these aspects.
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