The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

from goodreads

3 stars

When I started reading this book it totally gave me the vibe of Downton Abbey. The whole upstairs vs. downstairs vibe was totally there. I kept picturing the cook and the head butler as the actors from Downton. It was kind of cool. So, if you like Downton Abbey, you may like this book.

Synopsis

Grace was born at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1999 a film producer, who is making a movie about the suicide that happened at Riverton, asks Grace questions about her time as a servant at Riverton. This causes Grace to reflect on her time at the grand house and the events that unfolded there.

My Thoughts

This is definitely a book you do not want to read the back cover of before you read the book. I found it a bit misleading and thus, I got a bit impatient while reading it. I thought that the book was going to revolve a bit more around the suicide, but it doesn't. In fact, not much happens that is very actiony. It is basically just about life, at Riverton, and then London, and that is about it. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Even when they started talking about "the game" I thought it might pick up on the action. But nope, not much.

One thing that Morton does well in this book is the blending of the timelines. She is a true master at being able to have a coherent book that goes between two timelines. It is never confusing, you always know which time is which and it always makes sense. There are no abrupt changes.

She also did a great job of really understanding the history of the war and "shell shock". She was able to describe the rawness these men felt when coming back from war. She captured their hopelessness of a normal life as well as their scorn for the old traditions, which really didn't seem to matter anymore. You gained a greater understanding of how these men felt, and why the twenties were such a crazy time of high euphorias and depressing lows.

Reading this book definitely made me happy that I live in this time. Today it is so much easier to make yourself into what you want to be and there is not as much boredom or feelings of being stifled as there were back then, especially for women, and those of the different classes.

Some of the plot points were a bit weird and weak. Some of the characters could probably be eliminated all together as I did not understand their value to the story.

One the whole I found it to be a very readable book. It was long and did drag at some points, but on the whole I am glad I read it, though I will not read it again.