The most disappointing Trollope novel to date *mild spoilers*

I love Joanna Trollope but this book was a bust for me. Her usual slice-of-life descriptions and writing skill are on display but it’s the first time I have felt no sympathy for any character. I generally find her realistic, flawed and all too human characters accurate and charming. Not so this time. The adult children of the protagonist (although the novel has multiple points of view as is usual for Trollope) are truly awful, juvenile and condescending at once, living in homes bought in part by their fathers money but waxing superior over their mother’s finances and those of her lover, and acting like jealous four year olds around a new baby. If my children ever treated me like this I would be shocked and appalled - instead Rosie mostly worries and stews and acts mildly bitchy. Rosie isn’t particularly likeable and is often short and dismissive with the aforementioned lover, who is almost unbearable in his smarmy devotion. I cannot understand why he is so taken with her. Other than being something of a twat about how in love he is, his fatal flaw is he is not financially secure. The story purports to touch on the topics of aging and love and family. Huh. The focus on money is the pervasive theme and it disgusted me. I only listened to the end because I thought there would be a satisfying resolution that would allow me to recover the charmed and happy feeling I usually have after a Trollope novel. No. Do not recommend.

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