La Donna Che Collezionava Farfalle (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Really only about halfway through this book, but I am not sure I want to finish. The characters tell their story with little emotional depth, and Harriet's side of the story just sickened me. Who binds their child up with a cord and then hangs them on a hook in an enclosed cupboard to punish them?!! No wonder the child died! I wanted to throw up when I read Harriet's version of the events in the story. The book is dark, depressing, and quite frankly sounded better from the back cover than the inside is proving to be. This is a wonderfully written book, intertwined and full of surprises. At first I had difficulty distinguishing the voices, but gradually found small enough distinctions to keep the two tales separate. This is a story (told through the woman's diary)of a somewhat aristocratic woman in the 1800s who one has no trouble whatsoever hating. Her goal in life is to break the spirit of everyone and everything around her: horses, butterflies, children. Her background is eventually revealed and one grows to hate her less and less; but still she is not in the least bit likeable - more pitiable than anything, though one feels more pity for the lives she ruins. The other woman in the story is a shy, uneducated villager who works in the manor for the for the woman and future generations. Her life is inextricably intertwined with that of the manor woman, and as her secrets come out, it is so much easier to love her despite her foibles. The book reminded me of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
What do You think about La Donna Che Collezionava Farfalle (2011)?
It was really just okay...I DID take away some neat snippets but wasn't captivated...
—topracers_undertaker
I like how the chapters are written past and present style. Good story.
—Meg
