Krishna
This is a story about obsessions, mainly. This is a confusingly woven tale about Ann/ Polyanna, who grows up in Toronto, and about a lady balloonist called Arianna Esther, and their many loves of their lives.
The story is told in a rambling way, very distracting, in my opinion. It drags so much that I almost dropped it off at several places in the book. As if this is not enough, the list of obsessions goes on and on. Ann is obsessed with Emily Bronte and her first love, Arthur, is obsesses with Tintoretto’s paintings. Of course, Ann is a serial obsessor and obsesses with John when she tries to get away from Arthur, obsesses about the weather, the weather as it relates to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, about every thing in life, literally.
Arianna is obsessed with Jeremy, enough to leave her life and follow him on first sight. Jeremy is obsessed with purity and white… No, I am not kidding. In a novel of just about 300 pages you meet serial obsessions and excruciating details and nuances on Tintoretto’s Angels, on Weathering Height characters, on the life of Bronte sisters.
The serial obsession (with a chain-smoker-like urge) of Ann with a series of men is extremely annoying, and the whole book was a very, very indifferent read, from my perspective. You do not sympathize with or even understand most characters, their motivations, and so lose interest in their plight and their trials.
I will give it no more than a 2/10
— Krishna