Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jennareadsbooks 's review for:
The Marriage Portrait
by Maggie O'Farrell
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Big thanks to @aaknopf for sending me an early copy of The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. O’Farrell has been one of my favorite authors since I read This Must Be the Place a few years ago, and I was a big fan of her previous most recent historical fiction novel, Hamnet, which was a bookstagram fave last year.
The Marriage Portrait is another work of historical fiction focusing on a woman, or I guess “girl” considering that she died at 16, that we don’t know much else about - Lucrezia de’ Medici. What we do know is that she married young and died less than a year later. The circumstances of her death were somewhat mysterious with rumors she had been poisoned. That’s the angle that O’Farrell takes with this book. It jumps back and forth from Lucrezia’s childhood to her short marriage.
I feel like the characterization of Lucrezia was inconsistent. She’s described as a bit wild, as someone who can’t be contained, and as such as a child is left in the care of kitchen workers instead of being with her other siblings in the nursery. Her mother was looking at a map when she was conceived, making Lucrezia a wanderer, supposedly. I found the descriptions of Lucrezia’s personality to be at odds with her behavior. Like her siblings, she grows up in isolation in the family chambers. She doesn’t run away, she doesn’t wander off or even daydream much… she mostly doesn’t understand why her parents don’t seem to like her that much, and doesn’t fit in with her siblings. I did not find her very compelling - she was mostly an observer, a fly on the wall, and that’s fine but she was so insular that there wasn’t much interesting about it. She went along with the expectations that others had for her and only had very private interests in animals and drawing.
Unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me in the way that Hamnet did. I also felt that the writing was stilted. There were so many pauses in the dialogue, so many “…”s that it was distracting to me. Ultimately, if you are big O’Farrell or historical fiction fan, you may still end up liking this one. I’m bummed that it wasn’t great for me.
The Marriage Portrait is another work of historical fiction focusing on a woman, or I guess “girl” considering that she died at 16, that we don’t know much else about - Lucrezia de’ Medici. What we do know is that she married young and died less than a year later. The circumstances of her death were somewhat mysterious with rumors she had been poisoned. That’s the angle that O’Farrell takes with this book. It jumps back and forth from Lucrezia’s childhood to her short marriage.
I feel like the characterization of Lucrezia was inconsistent. She’s described as a bit wild, as someone who can’t be contained, and as such as a child is left in the care of kitchen workers instead of being with her other siblings in the nursery. Her mother was looking at a map when she was conceived, making Lucrezia a wanderer, supposedly. I found the descriptions of Lucrezia’s personality to be at odds with her behavior. Like her siblings, she grows up in isolation in the family chambers. She doesn’t run away, she doesn’t wander off or even daydream much… she mostly doesn’t understand why her parents don’t seem to like her that much, and doesn’t fit in with her siblings. I did not find her very compelling - she was mostly an observer, a fly on the wall, and that’s fine but she was so insular that there wasn’t much interesting about it. She went along with the expectations that others had for her and only had very private interests in animals and drawing.
Unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me in the way that Hamnet did. I also felt that the writing was stilted. There were so many pauses in the dialogue, so many “…”s that it was distracting to me. Ultimately, if you are big O’Farrell or historical fiction fan, you may still end up liking this one. I’m bummed that it wasn’t great for me.