I really tried to get through this book but I found it first, way too writerly, and second, way too depressing, and third way too predictable. It's a novel about how what we perceive now is not what we perceive then (obviously, it seems). Kincaid does a good job of showing how when we look back on a relationship that is now going poorly we reconstruct everything to lead us to this moment, but it is done pretty ad nauseum and the characters are unappealing and simply pathetic. Wow. I did not finish this book. "See Now Then"....I think the purpose of the book was that you can see now, but now will soon be then, but then can never be now again. Got it?The husband hates his wife but adores his daughter. They have Greek names: Persephone and Heraclese. No reason given why. The wife is Mrs. Sweet and the husband is Mr. Sweet. We know next to nothing about any of them except Mr. Sweet, a somewhat failed composer. I often will let my eyes jump to the next sentence when I am bored with the one I am reading, but these sentences were so damned long that they occupied an entire paragraph. And there was no information in any of them. Just that Now will soon be Then and how mr and mrs sweet loved each other in the Then but not in the Now.I had read 'Annie John' by Jamaica Kincaid and liked it. But this one, not one bit. I gave up halfway!
What do You think about Vedi Adesso Allora (2012)?
See the review by Michael [April 24 2013] - that says it all.
—kay
My first Kinkaid. Beautiful rendition of an inner life.
—keels
