Henry and Rachel

"Henry and Rachel" is the story of the title characters, Henry, a dreamer, and Rachel, a woman who has already seen too much in her short life. They live in the West Indies. Henry seems to really love Rachel but Rachel often seems to look at Henry as a means to convenience and comfort. They are a ba......more

What a strange, marvelous novel. It's told as a series of monologues in the voices of several characters. Some are letters, and in others the narrator seems to be confiding secrets to a friend in person. This made the story line difficult to follow sometimes, but Laurel Saville possesses that je ne......more

If the entire book were as beautifully written and engaging as the first few chapters, this would have rated among the best books I have ever read; but, the story did not hold up for me. And ultimately, I ended up flipping through the pages of the second half of the book just to get through it. This......more

Saville writes beautiful passages that stand alone quite nicely. However, her story telling leaves much to be desired. By organizing her novel with eight different narrators, the same ‘story’ gets told over and over again, albeit from different perspectives. The result is a book with no tension—it j......more

I found this book a bit odd. I made the effort to finish it because I understood that it was based on family letters and was the Author's story. I think the Author did a nice job with the writing and bringing the characters to life. I would read her again.......more